


Going Home

by EdithType



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-22 03:42:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 47,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7418413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdithType/pseuds/EdithType
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You both go first! I'll cover you!" The goal was getting Jeremiah out of Cadmus; but missions aren't always as planned and this time, while they took someone out, one of them was left behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

Enjoy!

...

"Watch out!" Hank screamed on their backs at the same time a laser wave flashed the hall passing them just by inches.

Some of the soldiers from their squad vanished immediately as the intense light touched them. Kara and Alex at the front, jumped simultaneously to each side. Kara used her heat vision to send the soldier carrying the gun far away; nevertheless, four more started to shoot them with normal guns. They've been fighting for a while now, and Hank counted at least another twenty more enemy's soldiers down so far. By the time they stepped out of the ventilation system they used as entrance, the whole air changed, and not ten steps later, someone spotted the invaders bringing more and more men against them. It was now or never. It wouldn't take long for something bigger to come after them; after all, they went illegally into Cadmus. However, everything was no more difficult than their 'chasing after aliens' missions at the DEO; only men against his team this time.

There was a counter attack from the DEO squad. Apart from Kara, Alex and Hank, there were another seven soldiers; three vanished after the laser wave, four left.

It looked like a suicide mission, but project Cadmus needed to be investigated and they were doing a secret out-of-paper mission, since this was government's territory and they couldn't appear using DEO uniforms. Luckily, seven veteran soldiers trusted Hank enough and accepted to go with them because of respect towards Jeremiah Danvers; they've worked together when agent Danvers was an active member inside the DEO. All of them knew the risk of being there, but never truly understood it until strange weapons were used against them.

"Careful with their guns! Not all of them are like ours." Hank yelled.

Kara wasn't wearing her Supergirl suit in order to protect her identity, all of them were using black suits; however, considering the dangerous circumstances, she realized her powers were gonna be needed more than she thought.

Soldiers from Cadmus were going back as Hank's team kept shooting and moving forward, using any wall, box, door, desk or whatever object on their way as a shield. The mission was going well, everyone able to walk through more and more hallways, until they finally got rid of their attackers, creating a sudden silence.

"Is that it?" Kara asked.

"Don't think so. That was too easy." Hank replied while making sure his soldiers were standing. "Is everyone ok? Any wound I must know about?"

Everyone denied it.

"I'm glad you joined us, otherwise we'd be done by now after that laser." Alex touched Kara's forearm.

"Let's go everyone. We have to move quickly." Director Henshaw gestured with his right hand. "I have a bad feeling about this 'clear' way. I know we're being watched so stay alert to any sound or move that's not us."

The whole place looked like a maze, and the team was thankful about the emergency exit signs. After going two levels downstairs, Alex spotted cells on both sides of an aisle. Everything was perfectly clean and organized. White floor, walls, lights, ceiling, doors. Their uniforms made perfect contrast with the space and that was not good at all.

"We'll go side by side. Johnson, Phillips, Vega. You look at cells on the left side. The rest, take the right side. Jeremiah is our goal." Hank covered everyone's back.

All of them walked alongside one another looking on both directions. That deaf silence was intriguing them and the lack of a noise different from their steps wasn't helpful. Window by window, they noticed a diverse variety of alien species; each having a different size, skin color, and being held according to their physical aspect; they were all… asleep, or probably sedated.

After a couple of minutes, one of the soldiers broke silence.

"Sir!" Vega captured everyone's attention. Alex rushed to his side and suddenly went speechless.

Over there, Jeremiah Danvers lied on a metal table, peacefully sleeping. Kara's heat vision burned the access control panel, moving aside to let her sister enter the room first. Alex stood there, hesitating for a few seconds.

Kara grabbed her hand, making her brain take control over her body. "We'll go together." Alex nodded as they walked over Jeremiah.

The 'beep beep' sound from the monitor was the only thing to hear and it melted Alex's heart. She never doubted Hank, but something inside her needed to prove it and here they were, standing in front of someone who wasn't suppose to be in this world anymore. Her fourteen years old one was processing things, and memories during her teenage life started to float in her mind. All of those moments, each of them while she thought her father was gone. All of those bad and good moments with Kara and Eliza. What was left of her family after the day they were informed Jeremiah was not coming home for dinner. All of those memories in which he wasn't there; all those nights when she spoke to the stars believing Jeremiah was listening. Those Christmas eves, having dinner without him. They managed to move on with their lives, celebrating birthdays, living somehow happily while he was trapped in here. That wasn't fair. How couldn't she know? What had happened to the man in front of her since then? Her dad was alive. HER DAD WAS ALIVE, and the 'beep beep' sound of his vitals proved it.

"Alex" Kara's voice brought her back to reality again. She squeezed her hand. "We have to move on."

Johnson and Bale were already disconnecting Jeremiah carefully, assuring he was not depending on any machine. Once they finished, they took the unconscious man on each one's shoulder.

"My dad…" Alex mumbled still shocked seeing how her dad was being carried and taken out of the room by the two soldiers. The Kryptonian wrapped her in a hug.

"I know. And soon, we'll be able to go home together." She pulled back placing her hands on Alex's cheeks, smiling at her tenderly. There she was, her foster sister. The one who hugged her every night after Jeremiah's presumed death. "I know how you feel, Alex." A thirteen years old told her between sobs. And tonight, she was hugging her again because of her dad, and this was a happiness hug. Was it a dream?

"Let's go people." Hank was already waiting for them outside the room.

It was time to leave. Hank was going at the front, behind him were Vega and Phillips. Kara and Alex were at the back of the group, looking after Johnson, Bale and Jeremiah. They took the same path they took way in. There was something wrong, Hank felt it. He couldn't perceive someone else's mind but his crew. He knew they went into Cadmus in the middle of the night and activities were naturally low compared to working hours in that kind of facility, but why was everything so clear? No more soldiers? No security? No more weird weapons?

They made it right under the tunnel ventilation entrance they used to sneak in. Johnson went in first to pull Jeremiah into it while Bale and Vega were pushing his body and going in after them.

"Be quick. Go out and get the vehicle ready." The men followed Hank's instructions and moved as fast as they could to get out.

"Sir?" Phillips stayed waiting for his Director's orders.

"Danvers, your turn to…" Lights went off and immediately replaced by an emergency red light and alarm. Shots sounded one more time, coming from every direction.

Phillips's body fell limp. Kara used her body to cover Alex. Hank went down and started to shoot back.

"Alex! Get out of here!" Kara yelled giving her back to her sister and starting to blow around them. Her x-ray vision allowed her to see many bodies flying back. She noticed her sister started to shoot at their attackers too, but this was bad. "Hank! Take her out!"

"You both go first! I'll cover you!"

_"Approaching vehicle!"_ Johnson's voice was heard in their earbuds.

Kara took Alex and pushed her in the tunnel first. Before going inside, her super hearing heard that familiar 'charging sound' and a laser wave came on them again. She was quick and used her heat vision to stop it. Surprisingly, it was as strong as she was. Where have they got this weapon? "I'm pretty busy right now!" She kept her heat vision, making it stronger, feeling the heat all over her face. "Hank, you go! Take Alex out! I'm right after you, guys!"

_"Vehicle is ready Sir! What's going on in there?!"_ They all heard Johnson's voice on the radio. Hank rushed into the tunnel. Kara screamed releasing her power, stroking whoever shot that laser to them. Danger didn't change because they were still surrounded.

"C'mon let's go!" Henshaw ordered from the tunnel offering his hand to Kara.

Due to being bulletproof, every bullet was bouncing off her body. They were indeed gonna make it. They had Jeremiah. Alex had his dad again. Almost out of Cadmus. They were going home. She took Hank's hand and stepped up.

But something changed…

Hank was the first one who noticed the change of pressure in Kara's hand. She suddenly felt heavy and he had to hold her hand tightly.

"Kara!" he heard Alex's voice behind him. Then he noticed the green tiny lights going straight to Kara. Kryptonite bullets. How…?

Kara's eyes were wide open. There was fire inside her, at least that's what she felt. Her strength was disappearing and everything started to burn. What was happening? When did…? She heard Alex's panicked voice and realized she was not gonna make it. Her sister had to be safe, had to be with Jeremiah. Hank had to take her out, but he was grabbing her hand as hard as he could. They should be on the way to the vehicle, to avoid being followed. There was no time. No choice.

"Take them home, Hank." She said, and with huge effort pulled her hand off his, letting gravity deal with her body. She heard Hank's voice above her. Felt the ground under her body. One last glance at her sister and boss. Another laser wave was coming; she heard it, and Hank noticed the sound too. He pushed Alex forcibly deeper into the tunnel until Kara lost sight of them.

They were safe. Alex and Jeremiah were going home, Hank would make sure of that.

Bullets stopped, or maybe she stopped listening; she couldn't know, she didn't care. Weakness filled her. That was it. She was gonna miss Earth. _"I've had a precious life."_ She thought. _"They're going home and I am too. See you soon, mother."_ Was the last thing she said to herself as darkness came to her.

TBC...


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 2

...

The dream turned into a nightmare…

"We have to go back!" Alex was kicking uncontrollably, held by Hank and Bale inside the truck.

Johnson was driving full speed while Vega was scanning Jeremiah's body at the back of the truck. The Sun was rising in the horizon, they had to escape.

"Alex! Stop!" Yelled Hank looking straight to her and grabbing both of her arms. "Stop!"

"We have to go back!"

"We can't!"

"We can't leave her!"

"Alex!"

"We have to go back! Let me go!"

"Al…"

The agent was a mess of tears and sobs. Her voice broke Hank's heart and blame started to overwhelm his chest. She wouldn't stop moving, wouldn't stop crying.

"Slow down. Alex!"

"Kara! Kar..."

"Alex, listen to me!" He grabbed her tighter and realized his hands would probably leave bruises on her arms. "We can't go back! We can't! We're too far now!"

"I can't leave her!" She tried to push him off.

"It was her decision! Respect that!" Alex stopped forcing; the fear in her eyes made Hank's eyes wet. "I need you to hold yourself, Alex. That's an order." He spoke calmly.

"I can't leave her, J'onn…" Her voice faded in sobs. Hank hugged her to get control.

"We'll come back for her, we…" It was very rare for him to lose words, but he couldn't finish the sentence. He saw all of those bullets; just two or three were enough to take Supergirl down, but there have been too many. He couldn't tell if Kara was… still alive.

"There's a tracker inside Jeremiah's left forearm, Sir!" Vega said from the back. "Do I have permission to remove it?"

"Use the aid kit we brought, and throw the device out when you finish."

How were they gonna tell Eliza? They recovered Jeremiah, but he knew that missing Kara was as if nothing changed. Additionally, they didn't know what was gonna happen when Jeremiah wake up. There was not reason to celebrate, there wasn't any victory. _"Please be alive. Hold on, Kara."_

...

It was late night already. Jeremiah was unconscious at the med bay accompanied by Eliza. The poor scientist was in grief for Kara, but Alex wouldn't ever think of something different than her sister being alive.

She locked herself in her lab all afternoon until now. Lost track of time and her eyes were swollen enough to barely let any more tears stream down her red cheeks. There was a rupture in her heart and she felt devastated. She couldn't feel happy, she couldn't be happy. Kara was in her mind, blocking the fact that her father was barely away from her now. She failed her sister. She hated herself for not fighting more, for not going back, for not being able to sit next to Jeremiah without reminding the price paid for him to be there. She was feeling useless.

"I'm sorry…" she sobbed at the pic of both sisters on her phone; taken at Kara's new office in CATCO. "I'm so sorry Kara… Please, you can't be gone… I know you're alive."

Everyone looked at her with nostalgia during the whole day. She hated them. They couldn't know a thing. They couldn't understand. Hypocrites. She was not gonna stand those looks, those empty words meant nothing to her. There was no one this time to hug her. No one could console her like Kara did. They were gonna bring her back. Director Henshaw was working on a plan to go after Kara, and she was gonna have ice cream with her sister again.

"I'll bring you home sis…"

A knock at her door brought her back. Hank was standing outside her lab.

...

_Beep, beep, beep…._

_"Mom…"_ Everything was black. _"Mom, why haven't you come for me? Dad? Astra?"_ She was falling. She had experienced it before, when the DEO shot her with kryptonite darts. What was happening? She couldn't feel her body, and there was a sound…

Beep, beep…

"(Babblings)… solar panel be at the… waves… total of eleven bulle… out of sight"

Those voices. Who was talking?

_Beep, beep…_

There was a smell. It smelled like the med bay at the DEO. Something like chlorine, alcohol, plastic.

"Fascinating." Said a deep voice. "She's like a plant with the sun… no, better than a plant." She heard paper sheets being shifted. "How long has it been since the surgery?"

"Fifty seven hours, Sir." Someone else replied from a distant place.

"Incredibly fast considering the damage inflicted." Someone clapped after the comment.

_Beep, beep…_

Her nose started to perceive a stronger smell of alcohol.

"This one was the worst bullet injury and look at it, it can be barely seen now." The voice was clearer now. It wasn't familiar.

There was a hand on her left side, right under her ribs. No, two hands.

_Beep, beep…_

Who was touching her? She was conscious. Was she alive? How…? She couldn't open her eyes. It was as if she couldn't control her body.

"She definitely looks prettier than in TV"

Out of nowhere, the pressure on her left side increased and she felt her body again, as it contracted from internal pain, letting a gasp escape her mouth. Her eyes slowly opened facing a blinding light on them. She tried to move her right hand to block the light with it be she couldn't.

"Oh no, no!" Said the deep voice. "Take it easy, dear."

Where was she? What happened? She looked to her left and met the owner of that voice. It was a skinny man. Not that tall but there was something intimidating about him. A couple of green eyes observe her with expectation, as if they were digging in her soul. She felt transparent under his look. They were lifeless black holes.

Another couple of hands placed on her shoulders to keep her in place. She put no resistance to it. Her body was too weak and dizziness was taking power over her. She was panting and breathing was difficult.

"My apology for having you tied to bed… or table actually; but last time we didn't have a good experience facing you powers, Supergirl."

Kara's eyes snapped open and looked into the man standing next to her.

"Or you prefer Kara Danvers?" That was the creepiest smile she'd seen. "Where are my manners? Pleasure to meet you, Miss Danvers" He sad grabbing her tied hand. "Doctor Modric, and my assistant…" He looked to the other side of the room "Doctor Reus". His assistant was a tall guy in his thirty's.

Her breathing was better now, but she was still feeling weak and everything hurt. That definitely meant she was alive. The Kryptonian looked down at her and noticed she was naked, making it the most uncomfortable experience she had ever had. She felt exposed and frightened; nevertheless, the awkward feeling changed into fear when she noticed her four limbs were tied up with kryptonite cuffs.

"Don't worry Miss Danvers. It's not as if we've never seen a naked woman before… although, you are definitely the first naked Kryptonian we've seen."

"What do you want?" Kara was surprised after listening her raspy voice.

"First thing first." Modric left her side and stepped next to a small desk in front of the solar panel table she was lying on. "You noticed the table, right? We got that from the DEO. We are government; therefore, we know what and who is in there. I must say I'm very impressed of your improvement with sunlight." He started to take tiny bottles with a red liquid; Kara knew what they were. "Exactly Miss Danvers, this is your blood and this one is bone marrow, thus don't even think of standing up yet." He smiled at her again. "Doctor Reus, hand me the chart please."

Kara was trying to analyze everything that was happening. Fighting with the dizziness and weakness, trying to stay awake.

"I was deeply disappointed when Superman declined to collaborate with us; naturally we couldn't use force to bring him here or we would be the bad guys of the story, and well… we're supposed to be the heroes, right? You know about that." He said while his eyes went up and down the chart. "You, on the other side, my dear Kara…" He spotted her over the chart. "You came directly to us. We knew that once his family knew Jeremiah was alive, his Kryptonian daughter was gonna come to the rescue. Here you are!" He said faking a joyful smile before nodding to Reus.

"Which room?"

"Let's take her to the 5th level."

"Where are we?" She asked looking around her without recognizing the place.

"In Cadmus dear…" He noticed her disorientation. "Oh… I see. You though those levels you and your team went through were Cadmus? How naive. That was only a tiny part of it, just a bit. Why do you think we left Jeremiah so close to the exit?" He made a pause. "After Supergirl started to help the city, it was only a matter of time for you to come."

Reus untied her from the solar table without removing the cuffs and placed a metal table like Jeremiah's next to hers. Two other men stepped inside the room making Kara feel vulnerable in everyway possible. But none of them seem to care about her. The men carried her without concern about her state, making the girl release a painful cry when she felt her still-healing muscles moved so abruptly to the other table.

"We'll be having fun soon, Supergirl. We'll see how super you really are." Said Modric as the table was being pushed, taking it somewhere else.

TBC...


	3. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 3

...

Her body was tensed and she couldn't describe the pain through her arms and legs.

The intensity has been stronger with each wave in the last half hour. This wasn't just electricity, this was something else. Out of this world. And it probably was. The shock finished and her back fell hard on the table. At least this time she was wearing what seemed to be like a hospital gown, and the table didn't feel as cold as before.

"Increase the intensity, Doctor Reus."

"Stop…" Her voice came out as a whisper. Her head was spinning.

"You've faced Livewire before, Supergirl. Yeah, it was terrestrial electricity, nothing compared to electricity from planet Turius, and let's thank again our Tauriun subject for that… Anyway, you are familiar with the feeling. Plus, you're stronger than any human."

"What… what do you want… f-from th…?"

"Sir, she's losing consciousness." Said Reus from behind the table.

Someone slapped her, making her blink until focusing on the ceiling above her.

"There you go, she's back again. Are you with us, Kara?" Modric's mercilessly eyes were examining her. "Don't miss the fun, we're having a… shocking experience, aren't we?"

"Her signs are starting to slowly stabilize, Sir."

"Excellent. Shall we…"

"What… do you want?" She looked at him as seriously as she could manage to.

"There is no need for me to give you any explanation, Kryptonian subject." Replied Modric with indifference, as he started to adjust the intensity from a panel connected to a generator, conducting energy through wires around Kara's body. "I'll tell you what… if you're still awake after this shock, I'll let you know what I want." The charging sound could be heard again, and her body shivered automatically in expectation of what was about to come. "As many people out there, I've faith in you, Supergirl." And with that, he signed Reus to release the amount of energy.

"No…"

She could feel her eyelids blinking multiple times. Her back arched in a way she didn't even know it could as her body was suffering and every part of her was contracting. It felt like thousands of kryptonite bullets through her skin. Needles. Spikes. She could only hear her own screams, and there were flickering lights inside the room. _"Rao!"_ Her mind screamed for help. The heat inside her head was horrible, a piercing pain knocked inside her chest. _"My heart…"_ She feared. She couldn't take it. She was losing it. _"Alex! J'onn! Anyone!"_ It was too much; darkness was taking her and she was thankful pain would cease then. But at surprise, it stopped right before darkness consumed her again.

"Is she alive?" Modric asked approaching his assistant to look at the vitals on the monitor.

"Yes… she is." Reus's voice had a tone of disbelief.

"Very well then. The only one who had been able to resist it so far; not even our Tauriun subject made it. We need her to recover a bit for the next…"

"What…" Mumbled the girl on the table.

"You're still here!" Doctor Modric rushed to her side and kissed her forehead. A gesture Kara repulsed. "I love you, my Kryptonian subject."

She heard the sound of a chair being placed next to the bed.

"Reus, please start to disconnect the wires."

Supergirl was hardly awake; feeling her heart fighting to establish a beat rhythm. She couldn't move and her eyelids were heavy, but she wanted answers.

"What I want from you, my dear, and I'm only saying this because I don't think you'll make in future rounds; is to make us, humans, as good as you are. The samples I took from your body are being analyzed to understand your healing processes and powers triggered by our sun. If I can make humans as strong as you are, taking benefit from the sun, we'll be able to do great things. Have some control and be able to fight alien threads. I work for the government, remember? We already have a collection of weapons, including one as strong as your heat vision, but I need to study your eyes, since you defeated our laser. Basically, all of this for military purposes, war of the worlds prevention, blah blah…"

She didn't say anything.

"But there is the exposure to certain attacks. We've faced with Tauriuns, and today you proved to me that Kryptonians are stronger than that. One less thing to worry about for us. We are aware of your powers, but not about your resistance, and if you are as strong as you apparently are, we'll succeed. Notwithstanding, there is the kryptonite problem, ironic isn't? Something radioactive from your own planet harms you until death." He noticed the fear in Kara's eyes. "Do not worry, kryptonite isn't the next round… yet. Just the cuffs for now. We don't want any trouble, do we?" He squeezed her left cheek.

"We've seen your resistance with a strong source of energy; confirming your muscles can deal with tension, and your heart was able to keep beating, even your brain stayed the same; nothing ripped apart has been great progress. You should've seen the mess the Tauriun, Bogst, Ovalyen, and other species caused when their heads exploded; absolutely dirty." He made a disgust grimace.

He sipped from his coffee mug.

"You should be thankful your body looks like a human; on the contrary, I would've had taken some skin, a nail, a tooth maybe. A bone biopsy was enough, we took it from your pelvis while taking the bullets out." He sipped one more time. "Next one is to check up your lungs and their resistance to a toxic gas from planet Vilkarr'z. We achieved to contain them fourteen years ago, when they tried to contaminate our oxygen with their gas. It's closely similar to our air after nuclear bombs. Deadly for humans at the moment." He stood up. "But if you, Kara, hold on to that one…"

...

"Jeremiah Danvers is awake." Vazquez said, taking both, Alex and Hank out of the plans and graphs on a table in Alex's lab.

Alex was exiting the room before Hank could react. It was three days since Cadmus mission and they were making plans to go after Kara. They had to be cautious. Bale, Johnson, and Vega were already listed for it, and against Alex's decision, they also asked support from Maxwell Lord. Access to a governmental facility was a big fish he couldn't ignore, and they knew, after facing that laser, every weapon developed by Max would be useful.

As for Kara's personal life, Winn and James were up to any news. Inventing an excuse for Kara's absence at job. Winn was spending every night at the DEO, finding a way to crack information about Cadmus and he did, that's how they got the plans of the real place, causing a shock in the team when they realized the tiny portion they went to at the top levels inside Cadmus. Under those levels, there was another world; deep underground was the real maze. The real challenge.

...

"Dad?" Alex felt weird saying that word. She never thought she was gonna use it for real ever again.

Jeremiah was seated on the bed, giving his back to her, facing a crying Eliza on the other side of the room. He turned his torso slowly to look at her and for a moment Alex thought he didn't remember her. He looked tired and lost. A tear escaped her eyes and Jeremiah contracted his chest sobbing. Alex was in front of her dad in the blink of an eye, launching herself into his arms. She felt those arms again, those which only in dreams she felt after Jeremiah's absence. She felt safe again. There was only this moment now, she couldn't think of anything else. _"No thinking, just hugging."_ And at that memory, she remembered Kara. Her family was still broken and the magic of the moment faded away as fast as it appeared.

"My girl... my Alex, I missed you so much." Said Jeremiah, holding her with all the strength he had in that moment. He extended an arm welcoming Eliza to the hug. They were together again. He pulled back to look at her daughter. "Man, look at you. You're beautiful. Teary eyes and everything." He smiled. "Please… tell me you didn't married a jerk." He joked between sobs.

"Still single, dad." For the first time in a while, she smiled again.

Her optimistic dad was still there. She had no idea to what he went through but this moment was something that couldn't be stolen. The three of them hugged again. Crying, laughing; enjoying the simplicity of that treasured minute.

"Where's Kara?"

Such a short question was a knife for the older sister's soul… the ice bucket fell on her shoulders. It was gonna be a long conversation, one she didn't wanted to talk about.

"Ahem…" Someone cleared his voice. "Agent Danvers, there is something you need to know." The family turned to see J'onn J'onzz standing at the door. Jeremiah stayed silent recognizing his old friend. Alex assumed J'onn read her mind and an honest _"Thank you"_ inside her head made him slightly smile at her. There he was, the Green Martian to her rescue.

...

They threw her in a cell, and her body hit the ground.

Every breath burned. She was laying face down on the floor. Air was painful. Her nose was bleeding again, her throat was dry, and for the first time in her life she was aware of the exact place of her lungs and diaphragm, her mistreated inner flesh. She never experienced an asthma attack, but she was sure that was how she was looking like having now. Just worse.

She didn't want to breath but her body commanded her automatically. There was fire inside her throat with each inhaled air. She gasped, coughed, gasped, coughed, gasped, coughed; every movement brought more pain. Sunlight, that's what she needed. If only she could take those kryptonite cuffs off her skin.

"Make yourself comfortable, sweet Kara." Said Modric from outside while watching his subject wheezing in pain. "I'm very proud of you! You nailed that gas for an entire hour. By the way, there are some tissues over there." He pointed to a small shelf in the corner of the cell. "Well… when you can stand up, you'll find them." The girl kept shivering against the floor. "I need you to be ready for the next one, Supergirl. Don't worry, we'll give you some food too. For now mmm…" He made a pause. "Take a breath." Kara heard his steps as she was being left in there.

Why was this happening? Were her friends going to come for her? _"You're death for them."_ She told herself. Now that she was alone, all she wanted to do was cry. She wasn't able to stand up, she was so tired. Hopeless. Exhausted. Scared. She didn't want to breath, but couldn't help it. Never felt this vulnerable before. No one was looking after her. _"No one is coming."_ It was truly painful. Against her own pride, she allowed herself to cry.

TBC...


	4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 4

...

"We need to get her out. Now!"

Jeremiah was on his feet walking around his bed. Alex, J'onn, and Eliza were trying to put him back in bed.

"Honey, please sit down, you need to…" Asked Eliza doing the best she could to reassure her husband.

"You don't get it. We need to get Kara out of there."

Alex never saw her dad as worried as he was now. His mind was far away, thinking, planning… J'onn was trying to reach his mind but he was struggling with it, frowning; which made Alex worry even more. Couldn't J'onn read his thoughts?

"J'onn?" She looked at the Green Martian with expectation.

"I can't…"

"What?" Alex turned to look at her father.

"I can't read anything… nothing."

Jeremiah seemed to notice J'onn's frustration. "What are you talking about?"

"J'onn is a telepath, dad. He's trying to read your mind to understand what you mean by saying we need to get Kara out of Cadmus, now."

"You're human, I should be able to listen your thoughts."

"What does that mean?" Asked a concerned Eliza.

"It means Jeremiah is not entirely human anymore." J'onn heard his own statement, repeating it again to himself to be convinced of what he said.

"What…?" Alex shook her head. "No, it can't be…"

"He's right." Jeremiah's gaze stood on the Green Martian. "What happened… in Cadmus…" He took a deep breath before explaining. "Initially… they healed me from Hank's stab. Once I was on my feet, they didn't let me go and threatened me by going after Kara if I didn't cooperate. I was asked too much about her and Superman, I had to give them answers from our studies and all the knowledge we had," he looked Eliza with guilt in his eyes, "on the contrary, they were gonna kill me and go after my family one way or another. They knew about our home, jobs… our daughter's school." He sat on the bed. "They wanted me to work for them, needed me to extract genetic information from extraterrestrial refugees on Earth." Jeremiah shrugged and closed his eyes, wishing to erase whatever that was coming to his mind. "The things I saw. What they did to subjects… "

He looked defeated and Eliza couldn't help but seating next to him, grabbing his hands to give him some comfort. They all waited until Jeremiah spoke again.

"Many of them came from Fort Rozz, but many others didn't. Innocent beings didn't deserve that. The kind of experiments they did to them… mutilation, transplants, energy experiments, cloning, virus exposure tests, species hybridization, dissection, resistance levels… subjects were always so scared, and when project Cadmus had what they needed, they killed those subjects. And I helped them… I can't let Kara go through that…" His voice broke.

J'onn J'onzz felt the anguish inside Alex's mind and grabbed her hand. His agent was standing looking straight to her dad figuring out a way to somehow understand his dad was only trying to protect his family, he had no choice… but all those lives. Kara was probably going through a nightmare in that very moment, and for a second she wished her sister to be death instead of facing Cadmus; immediately regretted the thought, hating herself for wishing Kara's death.

"It is the government and everything they want is power. By studying refugees, they have developed weapons in order to 'protect' our planet." Continued a regretful man who looked even older while telling them that story. "After working for Cadmus during four years, one day… the subjects were three identical Knoxes; a beautiful, full of wisdom specie from an extinct planet in Circinus Galaxy. But they were only eight terrestrial years old; it used to be a family, but after Cadmus they became orphans." His lips were trembling. "I refused to collaborate in that massacre, I didn't want to keep being part of those genocides. This time they didn't threat me with my family; instead they told me that if I felt so much love and admiration for other species, that if I preferred extraterrestrial species over ours, they were gonna give the pleasure of becoming one."

Alex's mind and Eliza's went blank. J'onn perceived how the whole environment inside that room changed, and he heard the fast beating heart of Jeremiah's daughter. Things clicked and it made sense why he couldn't read the man's mind minutes before. Silence was broken by Danvers.

"We all heard about extraterrestrial abductions and all of that before; often finding testimonials about subjects with lack of memory regarding what they saw; losing track of time, secondary effects, the need of hypnotism in order to recreate what happened during their abductions…" He sighed. "Cadmus operates in a similar way. I only have flashes in my mind. I do recognize my captors, but whatever they did to me, I can't remember; I only remember being in pain and… cold. Human mind is weak, with the right treatment, you can mold it however you want or help it to erase traumatic situations, since that's a mechanism of defense." The man stood up and walked to a table on the corner of the room. "I do know this…" He took a scalpel.

"Jeremiah… what?" Eliza went after him; nonetheless, before anyone could do something, Jeremiah made a small cut on his forearm and an orange liquid emerged.

Alex put her hands over her mouth in disbelief, a couple of tears falling.

"In the middle of the flashes I have… I was told they killed those young Knoxes, and…" He gulped his own tears. "They tried to improve human's brain in matters of retaining information as Knoxes did… the source were those childs, and this is my blood now. That's why J'onn can't read my mind, my brain is not entirely human anymore… I, I... I was the subject of the experiment." He couldn't contain it anymore and started to cry.

Alex ran to both her parents to cover them in an embrace as wide as her arms allowed her to.

They spent some minutes like that, trying to calm Jeremiah. The family was assimilating everything they shared. In that very second, Alex forgave whatever her dad did. He had no choice and his broken heart proved it. The guilt. The regret. He was her dad, a man of good; always looking after the people he loved. Despite the past, her father's orange blood; nothing of that mattered now, she missed him, she loved him. _"Love bonds us all."_ Kara's voice came into her mind.

The Green Martian made a sound, getting Alex's attention. He was looking an empty place inside the room, perceiving something out there, and when he noticed she was looking at him he said.

"Maxwell Lord is here, and because of his thoughts, I know Superman has arrived as well."

…

Reus finished putting a gauze pad on her navel. Modric studied it by inserting a camera into it. Kara's face was covered in tears, still crying silently while the doctor was taking off his blood stained medical gloves.

"Very well, Kara. Now we know the gestation process for a Kryptonian fetus is similar to humans. I'm amazed we share nature characteristics, considering how far Krypton was from Earth, and our different environmental conditions."

"Please… just stop." Her trembling words ashamed her.

Doctor Modric ignored her. Reus helped him to place the table in a vertical position. This was a new room. There was enough space to easily park five cars in it. By the time they placed the table on one side of the room to face the contrary wall, Kara understood why they needed that area. The opposite wall was gray color, made of platinum, and it had a big blue circle in the center.

Out of nowhere, Doctor Modric inserted a long needle in her chest, right in her heart, making her gasp in surprise. He showed her a shiny green bag hanging from a stand. She panicked recognizing the liquid that would go through the needle.

"Yes to your thinking. That is liquid kryptonite, do not make me push the button, Kara." He warned her with a deep voice. "I'll remove your cuffs so you can use your powers momentarily. You're weak enough to lose balance if we untie the straps holding you to the table, hence don't even think about using your strength because by the time you are about to move your arms an inch, liquid kryptonite will be already inside your heart." And with this, he placed a metal head band on Kara; which was holding lens frames for both eyes, but there was no glass on them. After removing the kryptonite cuffs, Reus and Modric stood next to the table, adjusting some data in Reus's tablet.

"Kara. You see that blue circle on the wall, right? Please strike it with your heat vision."

She didn't do it. She had to be strong and heat vision was one of the few things she could control. They could experiment on her; take as many samples as they wanted, harm her body, but she knew that once they measured the intensity of her powers, they were going to create weapons stronger than Kryptonian's powers; Kara wasn't going to put her cousin's life in danger; she rather die in order to protect those she loved. She would be strong for the sake of others. That was her duty.

"Kara?" Asked Modric.

There was no response.

"You don't wanna play that game with me, Kara." Modric left his spot to stand in front of her looking at her with those deadly green eyes.

"Use… the liquid kryptonite if you want and… k-kill me. I won't stri…"

He hit her with the back of his hand, making a bloodline stream from her lips. Kara faced him again, spitting blood on his face. Her eyes started to burn and before she could release her heat vision against him he punched her still opened navel. Her eyes closed hard. Her body claimed to contract but the straps kept her stick to the table. Modric got out of her way.

"You want me to kill you? I could in fact, get many information from a corpse, but we would miss the fun and I need your powers, Supergirl." He took his coffee mug and sipped from it. "You might don't care about yourself, but what about others? Do we need an incentive?"

Her eyes opened with fear on them.

…

Everyone was gathered inside the meetings office. It was late now and activities inside the DEO were calmed, giving everyone a better chance to discuss the rescue mission.

They had the plans of Cadmus on the table. Around it, were Jeremiah, Eliza, Hank, Winn, James, Alex, Max, Johnson, Bale and Vega.

"If you get to the server control room on the left side of level 7, I could give you a device for you to connect it into their system and I could easily hack them to take control of their gates and security." Explained Winn. "Once I have access to it, I can check on cameras and help you find Kara."

"I live for frames and pictures, I am completely observant on details. I could find Kara easily even if you put me in front of hundreds of screens." Said James. "I would detect her really quick and help to guide you out of Cadmus. Look, you won't take me or Winn with you, I know that." he put his hands up to let them know he knew how things worked during missions. "But we can still help you from here, and be your eyes inside that maze."

"Sounds good for me." Jeremiah nodded to him. "I do remember how to get to certain areas inside the building, they might have erased many things from my mind, but they gave me a Knox's mind, I can save detailed aspects about anything inside it. They tried to make me forget the maze; flashes or not, my mind allowed me to keep them very detailed."

"We should find another way in." Vega was taking note of specific places inside Cadmus.

"He's right. Ventilation system is not an option anymore." Alex was standing next to J'onn and as soon as the thought came to her mind, he perceived it. "Unless…"

"Alex is right." Everyone turned to look at him and Alex. "I could shape shift into someone from Cadmus, sneak in the server control and made our way in."

"I can install tiny cameras on you to give us a better look while you move inside Cadmus." Max suggested. "I also have a laser weapon as the one you described. I don't know if it would be powerful enough, but it would let us be at close level with them. Additionally, I developed bulletproof vests to stop more than simple bullets. And we all will be using mental waves blockers, just in case they took advantage from Myriad and have developed something similar to control or kill."

Max walked to the front of the room, carrying a hard briefcase, and when he opened it, he took out a syringe to show it to everyone.

"Most of us remember when Kara was affected by red kryptonite."

"By you." Snapped a serious Jeremiah, looking straight to him.

"Oh, I see you already know the story." Max gave a quick glance to Alex. "And as you know, I developed a weapon to counteract the influence of it on Kara, taking it out of her system." He held the syringe a bit higher. "I guess they must be using kryptonite on Kara, since the government holds more information than the DEO in matters of extraterrestrial species, and that is the most effective way to subdue a Kryptonian. Just as I was smart enough to find a way to fix the red kryptonite mess, I managed to create this. This is a serum I developed to neutralize kryptonite effects on a Kryptonian's body. If Kara is facing any form of kryptonite, this should help neutralize it and help her recovery. It doesn't have the same healing magical effect of the sun but at least works to prevent hard situations. I will make more of these so each of us can carry one, the first one to get in touch with Kara, use it." He took a small gun charged with a cartridge of it and threw it to Superman. "We know they have kryptonite bullets. Take an extra one, just in case."

Clark looked at him frowning a cold gaze. "You've tried to harm my cousin more than once in the past. Why are you doing this now?"

"Let's say I'm into helping the city too. Although it punches my ego to say this, I have to admit, the world does need Supergirl. Guess this is a payback after what she did to save everyone from the Myriad chaos."

"I am sure Kara is alive." Jeremiah spoke. "All they ever wanted was a Kryptonian in their collection, they must have done anything to save her from the bullets. They need her powers and that is why I am sure they should've found a way to keep her alive." He turned to see Eliza. "Whatever they have done to her so far, by the time we come back…" he took both her hands in his. "I am going to need all of your knowledge and Alex's to fix whatever there is to fix with her body."

…

An incentive?

"If we need to bring someone from home, or work…"

"Wait…" Kara was afraid of the people she cared about. "No…"

"Doctor Reus, we need to run tests from a Kryptonian to a human, soon." Modric pretended to not listen to Supergirl. "Do we have human subjects at our disposal?"

"No, Sir. The last one was used to share a K'hund's DNA, but the subject died during the test."

"Don't… you dare to…"

"Hush, Kara! Guess we have no option." Modric took his coffee mug again ignoring the girl's words. "Did you ever watch The Incredibles movie, Reus?" Asked curiously to his assistant.

"Yes, Sir."

"Great! Then what do you think about making a family of superheroes?" Modric started to place the kryptonite cuffs on Kara's limbs again. "The dad is a walking developed brain so far, and if tests worked with his DNA, the next subject on the list who got genetic information from him is…" He stood next to Kara and placed his mouth on her ear. "Finally, you'll be blood related. How much do you miss your sister, Kara?"

TBC...


	5. Chapter 5

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 5

...

The light changed to green, and she pushed the accelerator. The windows of the car were opened, letting the cool air go through her hair; clearing her mind.

Since Cadmus mission she spend the next five days at the DEO headquarters, helping out the team to arrange things for the rescue mission. Right now they were only waiting for Winn's cracking device, and for Max to make final adjustments to weaponry, also making a serum against kryptonite for each of them to carry. The scientist was using her lab to work and that was precisely the reason why she went out of the DEO.

Yes, she needed to pick up some clothing changes for her, Eliza… who deep down knew her daughter was passing by Kara's, and she wasn't able to visit that place; instead, she gave Alex what the older sister recognized as the worst lie ever, saying she needed to take care of her husband; anyway, clothes for her dad were needed too. Nevertheless, she used her discussion with Max as the final motivation to make her go out of there.

"Why is it so hard for you to trust me?" Max said to her while mixing liquids inside a glass recipient.

"Not even you trust yourself, Max."

"I though after Myriad… I am here to help people in National City… even if that means helping your sister."

"Even if that means having the dreamed chance of entering Cadmus… I think that was what you meant to say." Countered Alex.

"I want to help, ok? I can also be the good guy, you know?"

"Exactly… you're a wildcard. You'll be either a good guy or a villain; whoever you need to be, as long as it allows you to reach your personal interests."

Max smiled at the comment. "And speaking of personal interests…" He approached her, caressing her cheek with the back of his fingers, for which she pulled away from. "Who do you need me to be, Alex?"

And here she was, out of the DEO, taking a breath from that jerk and clearing her mind after all of the emotions accumulated in those five days. If they were going into Cadmus to rescue Kara, she needed to be completely focus on her mission and not dealing with a bunch of personal feelings. Concentration was the key.

After having spending half of the afternoon buying clothes for Jeremiah, Alex passed by her own apartment to get clothes for her and Eliza; last stop was Kara's, her sister was gonna need something to wear, and her own thinking was frustrating. She didn't know how things would happen or how long Kara was going to need to stay inside the DEO. She feared the moment of meeting her sister again. How was she? What did she go through? Just at the thought of how close she was now from Kara's apartment, her heart contracted. She didn't know if she could do it; enter a space filled with Kara. What if she didn't have the guts to do it? She had to be strong.

She got the extra key Kara gave her from her purse and inserted it to open the door. So she did, and when she turned-on the lights, everything looked so… empty. Alex took a deep breath to get some courage, holding back the tears trying to escape her eyes, but there was a sweet smell in the air, Kara's smell. The agent shook her head and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She left her purse on the couch and went straight to her sister's bedroom… she froze.

Standing next to Kara's bed, there was someone, giving his back to her while holding and looking at a picture from the bedside table. Alex reacted automatically, unfolding her gun and pointing it at the figure.

"Who are you?!" Commanded.

"We've been watching this place for two days. I was starting to think no one was coming to grief Supergirl's sacrifice." Replied the silhouette without looking at her.

"Who are you?! What are you doing h…?

"Don't even bother, Agent Danvers."

Something hard came from behind. Going black.

…

She never thought eyes could burn before, but hers did. After Modric threatened with going after someone she cared about, she accepted to use her heat vision. She knew what he meant. They would not do a thing to Alex, never. _"I won't let that happen."_

After that, they left her in her cell for what seemed a couple days or so. She had time to get some recovery, and at least her navel wasn't bleeding anymore. Against every pain in her body with ever move she made, she managed to climb to the hard bed in the cell to sit up on it. For the first time, she wasn't facing the ground, and could see details of where she was. The cell was not bigger than her bedroom. Apparently, they were fans of platinum since the whole cage was made of it, making the cold area even colder. There were three more cells on the left side of hers; they were empty and only the light on hers was on. There was no sound, only her breathing. Air stopped being painful, only causing itching inside her; however, her voice kept being raspy.

Her arms shivered, the hospital gown was thin and didn't provide any warmth. Only when twice a day one of the guards came in with food and a hot tea, she had experienced a relief sensation from cold.

Kara had no idea about the time, but when it seemed to be the third day, only Reus went for her; and now, after two hours of tests, her powers blew up while giving that maximum intensity capacity in her heat vision, but there was something about the lens frames that burned her upper face. If not because of the straps holding her tight, she would be facing the floor now. She was exhausted again, her vision was blurred. She couldn't tell if it was because of the dizziness from being free of the kryptonite cuffs momentarily, after being exposed to them for a long period; or perhaps, it was because of blowing up her still weak powers.

She felt the painful sensation of the needle threatening her heart being pulled out just after Reus put the kryptonite cuffs again on her. Kara groaned when Modric's assistant removed the lens frames against her burned skin. Kryptonite cuffs were touching her skin again and weakness overwhelmed her in a stronger way now that her powers were gone. The table she was lying on was moved into a horizontal position and in between opening or closing her eyes, she saw the lights along the hallway as she was being taken back to her cell. "Guess I will be facing the ground again." Said to herself, noticing how she could barely move, considering they used to threw her inside the cell.

They arrived to the cells room, she was completely familiar with the gray ceiling every time they took her in on the table. Something was different though; on the corner of her eye she noticed another light was on.

"Kara!"

Her heart stopped when she heard that, thinking her mind was tricking her.

"What did you do to her?"

Hopelessness fell on her entire soul. _"No!"_ She thought. _"No! No! No! NO! NO!"_ She panicked. Reus untied the strap holding her head and she turned to the cell next to hers, making the best she could to focus the person inside it. It was not a trick, Alex was there.

"Alex…" She said with her raspy voice. "What?"

Reus carried her off the table and as usual threw her in her cell. Pain wasn't helpful now, but she knew weakness was not gonna stop her from reaching her sister. She lifted her head and noticed Alex was already almost lying on the floor, right in the side of the cage that was separating them. Her big sister stretched her right arm through the bars of the cell, inside Kara's, trying to reach her.

Her sister, Alex, was there; despite guilt and sadness, she felt an indescribable joy.

Kryptonite cuffs or not; powerful or powerless, she had to take Alex's hand. She tried to sit up but couldn't.

"Kar…" Alex's voice vanished in a sob.

She had to reach her big sister's hand. She had to…

She screamed while she pushed herself to where Alex was. No injured muscle was gonna stop her. She kept pushing. She didn't care if she looked like a worm sliding in everyway she could. Until finally, both touched one another's hand, tangling their fingers.

"Alex…" She said gasping. Her body was definitely in no condition to keep moving.

Alex couldn't even say a word. Her eyes were red, she knew her face was a waterfall and her body contracted over and over again with each sob. Kara was there. She was alive. Under the light of the cell, she noticed her little sister aspect and the feeling of impotence started to be replaced by anger.

She never saw Kara as pale as she was now. It was less than a week since their mission into Cadmus, and her sister had a deadly look. The first things to notice were the kryptonite cuffs. Multiple syringe marks only in her stretched left arm, she couldn't imagine how the rest of her body was. Kara's hair was a mess. Her sister's lower lip was swollen, probably because of a punch or something, and from an overall look, she looked thinner than before; not only her face, but her arms and legs too. The skin around her eyes had a red color, like burned skin. She was heavily breathing, which made Alex realize, Kara was in pain and putting every bit of strength left in her body into stretching her arm to hold her hand.

"W-What… did they do to you?"

"It doesn't matter… Alex." She couldn't held her face up any longer and let her cheek hit the ground, still looking at her sister; who as a sympathetic gesture laid completely on the ground too, to be at the same level she was. "No… you shouldn't be here, Alex… Not you." A tear from Kara's eye went straight to the floor. "What are you d-doing here? How did…"

"I went to your place to…" If there was something Alex knew, was that probably there were microphones around them. She couldn't mention anything about the rescue plan, she wouldn't risk anything. "…To somehow be with you." She improvised an honest lie. "I missed you. Everyone thought you were dead, but I wouldn't believe that… I couldn't…" her voice broke again.

"I missed you too…" whispered Kara, offering a weak smile.

"There was a man standing next to your bed, then I woke up here."

Both stayed silent. Alex didn't mean to make Kara feel uncomfortable, but she needed to know what they did to her. As for Kara, she had to tell Alex why she was there, she feared her sister's safety, but couldn't bring the words out of her mouth.

"Kara… I need to know."

This was definitely her sister, Kara told herself. Alex always had that gift to know what others, especially her, were thinking.

Kara squeezed as hard as she could her sister's hand.

"I refused t-to use my heat vision for their experiments. Then he threated me with going after my family and friends… he said he was gonna make a family of superheroes." The girl was panting, struggling with catching air. "A-And mentioned that the father had a developed brain…" Kara frowned. "I realized he meant Jeremiah when he asked me how much I missed you." Somehow, she managed to lift her head one more time. "He said…" her voice broke in sobs, "he said w-we were gonna…"

"It's ok, Kara." Alex caressed Kara's hand with her thumb, trying to comfort her at least in that way. "You need to rest…"

"…be blood re…"

"Finally together." Modric entered the cells room followed by Reus and three guards.

Alex seated without letting Kara's hand go.

"You are definitely your father's dad." The Doctor said looking at her.

"You were the one at Kara's."

"Nice to officially meet you, Alexandra Danvers."

"Alex."

"Alex." Confirmed Modric.

Modric signed the guards to open Kara's cell and he entered, standing next to her, on the opposite side Alex was.

"Kara, dear…" He went down to grab her chin and lift her face.

"Don't touch her…" If gazes could fulminate someone, Alex's would have killed Modric instantly.

"It's kind of late for that." He briefly glanced Alex with his cold eyes before focusing again on Kara. Pulling her away from Alex. The Kryptonian couldn't do a thing to release herself from his grab. "We've been spending long time together, haven't we?

"I said don't touch her!"

The agent got Modric's attention again. "As fierce as your sister. If I didn't know who you are, I could easily buy the story of both being sisters." He looked at Kara again. "My Kryptonian subject here, she knows how much I love my job, also how much I love her."

"I did e-everything you as-asked me to do. Leave her out… of this." Kara was literally hanging from Modrics grab. She wished so much to punch him, to slam him against the wall. Using all of the strength she had, she tried to stamp her fist on his skinny face; but it was useless, he stopped it and hit her straight on the stomach, making her lean down.

"Stop!" Alex yelled from her cell.

"Ah, ah, ah… No, Kara. We've played this game before and it didn't go well for you." Blood stained her hospital gown. "See? You opened your navel again."

He looked at his assistant, who opened the case he was carrying. One of the guards took the panting girl from Modric's arms to hold her from her back, keeping her on her feet, facing Alex. The other two guards opened Alex's cell. As soon as the gate was opened, she ran after the first guard, evading his arm and punching him straight on his right eye. The second one came from her side. She went down to kick him between his legs, but stopped when she heard Kara's scream.

The guard holding her had inserted a syringe near her collarbone. Alex knew those, they were the same Lane had used on Astra. Kryptonite was still out of Kara; Modric had his left hand up ordering the guard to hold it there. Both guards held her from each side, forcing her to kneel down.

"This is what is going to happen, Alex." Modric entered her cell with another syringe in his right hand. "While you were unconscious I took a sample of your blood, aiming to find a way to make match with another sample I had…" He saw the realization look in the agent's eyes. "Oh… I see. Jeremiah told you the story about him and his Knoxes friends already."

Kara's eyes were wide open. She heard about planet Knoxon back in Krypton, they were admired because of their… She realized it. Jeremiah had been intervened with another species' DNA? _"The developed brain..."_ She remembered Modric's words. That was what they did to Alex's dad. And now they were gonna use her DNA on her sister.

"No!" She tried to release from the guard's hold, hating herself for being so pathetic. She wasn't even able to stand by herself. She felt like a doll. She had no strength, no powers, not even a voice loud enough.

Alex tried to stand but it didn't work, both guards held her in place and she was not gonna risk Kara's life again.

"I am sure you always looked after your sister, trying to protect her." Doctor Modric was now standing in front of Alex. "Even I would have hated her; for coming into my life without permission, to cover everything good I was and did just with her bare existence. Forcing you to throw away everything you ever dreamed to accomplish, to devote your entire life and career to her well-being on Earth. And if that wasn't enough… she took your dad away." He smiled. "Of course that more than once, you have wished to be as strong as she is, and not stay in the shadow of Supergirl."

"Leave her…" Kara tried to move forward, only to be held back.

"Seriously, I am indeed being generous and giving you that chance."

"Don't…"

"Kara?" He suddenly looked at the Kryptonian. "Don't be jealous dear, you're still my favorite one… and we're still missing the kryptonite resistance round. The idea is to make Alex resistant to it, even if she shares blood with you. Wasn't that what you always wished for? To be real sisters." With that, he pushed the needle in Alex's neck and the liquid with it. She heard Kara's scream far away. The content burned and she could feel as it was expanding inside her.

Both guards released her from their grip but she stayed on her knees just to lie to her side right away. She closed her eyes hard.

"So… kryptonite cuffs were stage one." Alex heard Modric stepping out of her cell, followed by both guards. "Kryptonite resistance test stage two, officially running. Turn on the emitters, Doctor Reus."

Alex opened her eyes in fear adjusting them to the bright green light inside Kara's cell. Her body started to shake, she had no control over it; however, she saw Modric signed to the guard holding Kara and this one injected her with Kryptonite. _"STOP!"_ She wanted to yell as Kara fell hard on the ground screaming in pain. _"Kara!"_

They needed to be rescued now, and she grasp into that hope with all her heart. By now, everyone must have been aware of her disappearance. Everything was mostly set up. They were coming soon. _"Please come…"_ Her sight started to blur, only perceiving the convulsing figure on the next cell. _"Please hang on…"_ told to herself, told to Kara. _"Please come…"_ Her consciousness faded away.

TBC…

For the next one you might need a tissues box on your side. Please don't hate me, this is an angst one.


	6. Chapter 6

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 6

...

"J'onn sneaks in, enters the servers room, and connects the drive. Winn cracks the system and gives us access to the facility. James localizes both Kara and Alex. We all will be waiting outside for instructions." Jeremiah had the plans on the table, making sure everyone was following him.

When Alex didn't show up, J'onn J'onzz flew around the city looking after her; listening to Eliza's indications, he went to the places the agent had planned to go. He found Alex's purse at Kara's; the door was opened, and the carpet was out of place as if someone had been dragged on it. He cursed while realizing what had happened and went straight back to the DEO fearing for both captured women.

Winn's drive was ready and Max was finishing the last serum when J'onn arrived, making the whole team panic about the situation. This was worse, far worse. Jeremiah amazingly kept calmed in order to keep focus on the mission. He was shocked and fearful; nonetheless, he couldn't lose concentration. His daughters needed to be rescued. Anguish and personal feelings aside, the mission had to be properly organized.

"Once I'm inside Cadmus, it will be easier for me to guide us through the hallways, backed by James indications. I might have flashes only, but I do remember the main access to the facility."

"I will already be in level 7 by the time everyone can see through cameras." Said J'onn. "Winn, who will I be?"

"I got you Tom Robben," Winn placed the pic of a blonde man on the table. "A pharmaceutical chemist who precisely works at level 7; this would make things easier for you, since the all access is controlled by finger prints; which of course, won't be an obstacle once I hack them."

J'onn immediately shape shifted into him, generating a surprise expression on everyone.

"Wow. After watching Kara jumping off the roof and flying back for the first time… that's seriously one of the coolest things I've seen in my life." Pointed Winn with shiny eyes.

Max was not as surprised as Wnn, but somehow intimidated. "I'll definitely implement a security system against shape shifters in my company."

"Me and Vega will cover your backs; while Johnson will stay out, having the vehicle ready for the run." Said Bale.

"Eliza, I left a sample of the serum in Alex's lab…" Max spoke in a serious tone of voice to the scientist. "Please, look at it and the notes of its contents on the desk in the center. It will be helpful if you can make some more in case it is needed when we come back."

"I will go after my cousin and Alex, as soon as I know their location; you have to know that when I get them, me and John can fly them back to the DEO. We don't know what their condition is going to be." Superman was already wearing the same uniform the team was using.

"I completely agree with that. The fastest they are treated, the best." Nodded Jeremiah. "I am afraid they probably do something to Alex, and both will need medical attention."

"I will be ready for when you arrive." Eliza held her husband hand and turned to look at everyone. "Please, bring back my girls."

"Well, then. Let's move people!" J'onn was already exiting the meeting room.

…

There was a beating. She could hear it perfectly. Was it hers? The beat was slow and inconsistent. Around her, it was cold. She was cold. Her entire body hurt, but it wasn't worse than pain after some of her previous missions. _"I only remember being in pain and… cold."_ That's what her dad said and she finally understood those words. This time it was her who had been intervened with Kara's DNA _"Kara!"_ She opened her eyes remembering where she was. The first thing to notice was the intense green light coming from the next cell; she lifted her arm trying to cover her eyes. It burned a bit when she did, but the kryptonite cuff on her wrist caught her attention. She didn't feel exhausted, just normal pain, nothing to make her react like Kara did when she was exposed to kryptonite. Did that mean the green mineral did not affect her? The heartbeat sound was louder now. She focused on sensing her own heartbeat but it didn't match hers. _"What…"_ She turned her head to look at her sister; Kara was still lying on the floor. _"Is it Kara's? How can I hear… Is this…"_

"Kar… Kara?" She couldn't do more than just lay on her side; she was dizzy.

Alex's world broke in pieces when she saw Kara. She looked bad. Her skin was covered in sweat, reflecting the green light coming from four kryptonite emitters, each on a corner of the cell. Her chest was slowly rising up and down. Alex's heart was denying it, but her scientist mind was telling her over an over again that the girl next to her was not gonna last long if she kept under those conditions. If it wasn't because of the low beating she could hear, and the labored breathing of her sister, she would look like a corpse. The lack of color was telling her that Kara… Kara was dying.

"Kara?" She asked one more time. "Please… please wake up…" She begged, fearing the worst.

"I'm here…" A weak voice came out of Kara, making Alex sigh.

Alex moved right to the wall of platinum bars that divided her cell from Kara's. She stretched her arm but her sister was out of reach.

"Kara…" She took a deep breath, wondering if she was ready to listen what she wanted to know. "I need to know, what they did to you. I need to, so I can somehow help you."

"It's… ok, Alex…"

"No, it's not." Alex's eyes got wet. "I-I need to understand what you're feeling now."

Kara was fighting against the desire of falling asleep. She was losing track of time since her consciousness was fading and coming back momentarily. Her lack of energy made impossible for her to move anything but her head. She didn't feel her body. Her nervous system was failing. That was good somehow; at least the pain was gone. It was hard to breath, and because of her weakness, she knew her exposure to kryptonite had been prolonged enough to probably cause permanent damage on her. Her body was telling her it had been enough. The cuffs, the emitters, the syringe shot… She could feel how her body was being drained.

"He took samples from my body…" Alex realized she meant Modric. "Blood, bone marrow, bone biopsy… Tested my resistance to tension with electricity from planet Turius. Also… tested my lungs resistance with a toxic gas from planet Vilkarr'z." Kara gasped for air before continue. "From my n-navel, he got information about… the gestation process of Kryptonians."

The agent could only imagine her sister being treated like that. She used all of her pride to hold back the lump in her throat. If Kara was broken, she was gonna be the strong one. She hated Modric. He had to pay. She was gonna kill him. She was gonna kill him. She was gonna kill him. She was gonna do it.

"…And I blew up my powers d-during t-the heat vision test."

Kara didn't say anything else. Alex waited for a few seconds before talking, but her sister spoke again.

"Alex…" Kara whispered.

"Yes? I am here." She kept her hand as close as Kara as she could, she didn't care if she wasn't touching her.

"Remember… that navy blue blouse Jeremiah gave you f-for your birthday?"

"Yes. The one that go stained with oil from the washing machine."

"It wasn't the washing… machine." Kara turned her head to face her older sister. "I spoiled it…" She confessed. "I knew it was your lucky blouse. I liked it a lot, and one d-day I wore it… to have luck while trying to fix your bike… but I ruined it. I was so careless. I didn't wanted you to hate me…" A tear was in the corner of her eye.

"It's in the past, Kara." Her sister needed everything but guilt. "It was an accident."

"But…"

"It's ok… for real, Kara."

Kara nodded and looked up to see the now green ceiling of her cell. _"I'm not gonna make it"_ She thought. _"For real this time."_ She closed her eyes; thinking about how to say what she was gonna say. She had to. There was guilt inside her, a guilt she felt since the day Jeremiah disappeared. A guilt she kept hidden from everyone since she was a teenage. The guilt that stuck in her heart the first night Alex cried her dad's death. A guilt Modric brought back.

"The day I left Krypton… I was so angry with my parents because t-they were not c-coming with me…" She said, without taking her eyes off the ceiling. "I was so selfish… because I wanted them to escape too. Later, I understood it was not a-anger, it was fear. I was so scared because I knew I… I was not going to see them again. Suddenly, I had to look after my cousin a-and the worst part was that… if things didn't go well, I had no one, and no home to go back to… I cried all the way in my pod… until I simply fell in an induced sleep when I got stuck in the Phantom Zone."

"When my cousin opened m-my pod, life came back to me. I was… not alone." She smiled weakly. "A family took me in here on Earth." Her eyes shined at the memory. "When I saw Eliza and Jeremiah I felt hope, as if I belonged somewhere again. I… I used to ask my mother for a sibling, and from one day to another… I had a sister. I thought, "Yes! Someone I can tell everything and be best friend with." But I realized with time, that… your thoughts were far d-different than m-mines."

Alex was completely focus on Kara's voice. She never spoke with her about it before. Her chest was heavy at the memory of how she resented the intruder.

"Alex…" Kara kept looking at the ceiling, but Alex saw a tear streaming down her face. "I… I knew I was always embarrassing y-you at school. Following you, everywhere. I was being selfish a-again, trying to avoid b-being alone one more time."

Alex wanted to speak, to stop her sister from talking like that; but she knew this was something Kara needed to say out loud.

"I never… wanted to make you feel inferior. I always l-looked up to you; you were… so smart and strong. So confident. You didn't needed me l-like I did for you, and still… I ruined your life. I… I'm sorry." Kara sobbed and those words where a bullet in Alex's heart. "You w-were forced to have a… a sister. To look after me. To share your bedroom… your space. I'm sorry I embarrassed y-you." Kara's voice was broke with sobs. "I'm s-sorry you devoted your whole life t-to protect me… Superpowers or not… I was always careless."

"Kar…"

"I'm sorry I took your dad away." Kara was freely crying now, and Alex saw how hard that was for her, as her body was shaking, making her sister gasp to catch some air. "I lost my parents and made y-you… lose your dad too. All of you gave m-me was a home… a family. B-but all I-I brought you was m-misery and sorrow. I'm truly sorry, Alex." She kept sobbing. "You're here b-because of me. I'm so sorry."

"Kara…" She was crying too. "Listen to me…" Her sister turned her head to look at her, and beyond sadness and guilt, Alex saw shame in her eyes. No, this was wrong. Kara couldn't feel like that. She won't allow her to feel like that. She deserved the truth.

"I told you before that I used to resent you. Because I was the star; I never asked for a sister." She was being honest with the broken girl in the other cell. "I did blame you for my dad's death… I-I hated you that night." She confessed with sadness painted on her face. "But you lose both of your parents, your home, your planet. I questioned myself how such a fragile, careless girl could endure the pain. And I hated you even more, because you proved to be stronger than I was. I was so mad at you. It was so unfair. After everything I did for you against my own will, you made my dad go away." She made a pause to take a breath. Both of them were crying in silent. "But that night you hugged me. I-I wanted you to go away, to leave me alone, to go out of my life; but I was crying to the point of not being able to say a thing, and mom was battling in her own grief… I remember I pushed you away; but you hugged me again, and told me you knew how I was feeling." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I realized you were scared. Scared of losing your family again, because dad was the second father you lost… Despite my hard feelings against you, you were struggling on your own, trying to live in a world that wasn't yours, to learn a lifestyle, trying to fit in. You were so naive and innocent; so sweet and kind. You never complained about my cold way to treat you or anything; because everything you wanted was a family. I-I couldn't hate you. I saw how strong you really were and I admired you. That night I finally understood that I had a sister, not to hate her or compete with her; I had a sister to lean on. Someone who somehow was also forced to live a life she never asked for. And if this girl suffered a worst experience than mine, I was gonna support her unconditionally, as she was doing with me." Alex cleaned her tears with the back of her hand. "I never knew how much I wished to have a sister, until I met you, Kara." She smiled tenderly at the girl. "No one forced me to be a scientist, I chose it. And today I'm here because I was blessed for having you in my life. From all of the galaxies, all of the planets, all of humanity, all of the families, you are part of mine. You've never been a burden, Kara; you've always been a present I never asked for; a present that has saved many lives, including mine. You have to know… you'll always be my baby sister. The one I deeply admire and I'm proud of. From everything there is in my life, you'll always be my favorite thing about living."

They kept looking at each other while crying. They were usually honest and shared everything, but this was different. Both of them had buried those feelings in the past in order to move on with their lives. They left them behind and replaced them with school and jobs. It was in the past; notwithstanding, it was something they needed to clear in their relationship. Some minutes passed until their sobs slowed down.

"Is Jeremiah ok?" The question took Alex by surprise.

"Yes, he is. And he can't wait to see you again." She smiled at Kara but her sister's sad look made her be concerned about her. "What… what's going on, Kara? She asked completely worried; trying to sit up.

Kara looked straight to her and with a tired voice said: "I'm… I'm not gonna make it, Alex." And that was it for the older sister. Her sister was defeated.

"Don't say that…"

Kara's breathing was slower than before; still, her face had a weak smile.

"We both know it A-Alex. You… know it."

"Listen to me again, Kara. You can't give up, ok?" She fought trying to contain herself from crying again. The Girl of Steel could not give up, could not die here. "You can't go without watching the final of Game Of Thrones with me. You have no permission, and that's an order from your older sister." Alex recovered some hope as she saw her Kryptonian sister smile at her comment. "And we'll have a Danvers sister's night with pizza, ice cream…"

"Potstickers…" Said Kara.

"And potstickers, of course! I'll leave you take all of them."

A sound took them out their conversation. The main door opened as Modric, Reus and two guards entered pushing a metal table.

"Amazing Kara, you're still alive!" Modric cheered her up.

"What do you want?" Alex was weak, but she could move better now, and did her maximum effort to sit up and face them.

"I'm very pleased to see you're doing good, Alex." Modric opened her cell and the two guards grabbed her to put her on the table.

"No…" Said an impotent Kara.

"Don't worry, my dear Kryptonian. We'll just go for a ride to see her progress, and she'll have her final dose of you. She'll be back… if she makes it, of course."

"Please…" Said Alex as she was being put on the table. "Let me hug her, in case I don't come back."

Modric stood quiet, thinking about it for a moment.

"Please." She almost begged. _"I'll deal with you later."_ She thought.

"Don't try anything stupid, Alex." He warned her, signing both guards to take her inside Kara's cell.

They put her on the floor next to Kara and maybe it was adrenaline, she didn't know, but somehow, she managed to embrace her sister. It wasn't a tight hug, and Kara couldn't hug her back, but she leaned her head against Alex's. Half of a hug or not, it meant everything for both; they could finally be next to each other, feel each other's warmth. Kara was definitely thinner than the last time she hugged her, but her sister was there, she was there.

"I love you…" Said Kara on her ear. "Thank you… for giving me a family, a h-home. For everything y-you've been and done for me."

"I love you too, Kara…" She squeezed her as hard as her arms allowed her to. "We'll go together, remember? Hang on and wait for me. I'll be back soon." Alex got closer to her sister's ear. "They're coming to rescue us, Kara. We'll go home together. I promise."

She was pulled away from her sister.

TBC...


	7. Chapter 7

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 7

...

"Have you noticed and difference on your body already, Alex?" Asked Modric while lifting the syringe containing a second shot. "To be honest with you; I was expecting a better change. I think we might need two or three more shots after this one. Just to complete the treatment."

Her table was in a horizontal position and the light above her was blinding. After being long time in that gray room, her eyes were getting used to a brighter space. According to what she saw in Reus's monitor, her vitals were normal; everything was normal. She was tired and dizziness remained, but out of that, everything seemed fine. _"Just apply the damn shot already."_ She didn't care about what they were doing or whatever they were injecting in her system. Her mind was frightened for her sister. How was she? Was she… was she still alive? Why were they taking too long to rescue them? Where was her team?! The agent knew by look that if Modric had in mind one more shot of liquid kryptonite for Kara, her sister was not going to resist it any longer.

She felt the burning sensation again as Modric put the liquid in her left arm. This time it was worse, she couldn't help it but groan and gasp for air, as if that was gonna erase that horrible sensation. Where was her team?! Kara had no much time left, and she didn't know if she was gonna make it either. Her body shook but the straps were keeping her steady. _"You'll pay for this. You'll pay for this. You'll pay for this. You'll pay for everyone you've harmed. You'll pay for Kara. You'll pay for this, Modric."_

Surprisingly, noises were louder than before, all she wanted was to cover her ears from those painful sounds. Was that what Kara felt back in time on a day at Junior High? Did that mean the experiment was indeed working? How? _"He must have had plenty of time to practice with subjects like dad…"_ she concluded.

In the middle of shakes, she noticed Modric standing next to her, in expectation.

"Seems like kryptonite means nothing to your body." He clapped. "It is working, Doctor Reus!"

Alex kept shaking on the table; she was losing consciousness, but no, she won't let that happen. She had to be strong, had to hang on, for Kara. _"Wait for me, Kara…"_ Her sight was being surrounded by darkness _"No!"_

"How many more shots will she need, Doctor Modric?

"I believe two or three. Change is being slow, but consistent. Her body reacted the first time, as any other body would have. According to the sample you took five minutes ago, her cells indeed got improved, her senses, heart rate; apparently, her DNA somehow adopted the intruder cells from the Kryptonian subject." He took a look at her vitals. "Let's wait for one hour to see how it goes; then we'll take her to her cell."

She was gonna keep standing against her own body. Only one hour. She had to hold on only one hour. Her will was stronger. _"Stay awake, Alex! Stay awake!"_

…

Every hall was significantly bigger than the DEO ones. Tom Robben was politely greeting to whoever that said "Hi" to him on his way to level 7. He was happy the person Winn got for him had enough hair on his head to cover the communicator earbud he had in his left ear. J'onn followed the path Winn and Jeremiah asked him to take in order to get to his final destination in the shorter time possible.

On his way, he was memorizing everything around him; also taking advantage of his abilities, reading the mind of people passing by his side, hoping to hear a thought related to both sisters. He stood next to a woman who was also waiting outside the lift that should take him from level 5 to 7. He knew it was still one level above him when he heard an approaching mind with both Kara and Alex in it. The door opened and he tried his best to not look shocked; he kept a neutral posture entering the lift.

"Seven, please" He said when he noticed the guard looking at him, standing next to the control panel.

"Eleven. Thank you." Said the women, and the guard pushed the two buttons.

Alex was on a table, and there were two doctors and a guard with her. The agent looked pale, but she was conscious; no injuries at sight.

_"Alex… it's me, J'onn J'onzz"_

But there was no response from her; not even a blink of her eyes. He held his breath fearing what he already suspected. He tried to enter her mind, but it didn't work like it usually did. _"No…"_ He rushed to look at the numbers on the lift panel. He was level 7, the woman was 11… _"Level 15"_ he memorized. That's where they were heading to.

 _"J'onn, let us know when you are in position."_ Jeremiah's voice came out of the communicator.

He had to be fast without moving too quickly. _"Level 7, connecting drive; then, somewhere in level 15. I'll need James's eyes."_ He thought as he stepped out of the lift acting with indifference about the rest of passengers in it. He was on the move.

…

Kara's heart beating was still slow. But it definitely was there. Her sister had her eyes closed, but the was still breathing. _"She's alive."_ Repeated to herself, bringing relief to her chest.

The guard left her in her cell. She was thankful pain wasn't unbearable. She immediately crawled to the dividing platinum bars between their cells. They were left alone again.

"Kara… I'm back."

But Kara didn't show any sign in response.

"Kara?" She grabbed the bars and laid her head on them, letting frustration overwhelm her. She tried to catch her breath, and stay focused.

Alex noticed the panel of the kryptonite emitters on the left side of Kara's cell. She lifted her arms and realized the cuffs had a finger print pattern recognition area. _"Probably only opened by Modric and Reus."_

The agent kept calling for her sister during a few minutes. But the Kryptonian stayed the same.

…

J'onn connected Winn's drive inside the server.

"Henkshaw in position. Drive connected. Do your magic Winn. Over."

 _"On it!"_ replied Kara's friend.

"James, by the time you have visuals, I need your eyes on level 15. I saw Alex on my way and she was being taken to level 15. Over."

 _"Count on it, J'onn."_ James and Winn were both at the control room inside the DEO.

 _"Are you positive it was Alex, J'onn?"_ Said Jeremiah.

"Positive."

 _"Winn?"_ Superman's voice asked.

_"Almost there guys…"_

_"Waiting for your order, Director Henkshaw. Over."_

"Copy, Bale. Once Winn grants us access, follow Jeremiah and Superman. You all have seen the path I took through the camera on my doctor's coat. Follow it, it is easy and you'll have no issues to clear your way in. I'm on my way to level 15. Over."

…

This time Doctor Modric entered the cells room alone.

Alex lifted her head in expectation for him to go to her cell; however, Modric approached the emitters' panel control to turn them off, leaving the white light of the cells only.

"What are you doing?" She asked, slowly standing up.

"You're becoming a case of success, Alex. That's what is happening." Modric stepped outsite her cell. He had a chart and a small hard case; which he put on the floor to look at the chart closely. "Your samples showed a successful match between your DNA and Kara's. You've been exposed to kryptonite, and that hasn't been a threat or caused any reaction from your body; your body is facing a Kryptonian's biggest danger without flinching. It is indeed working. Probably two or three more doses and National City will have a new Supergirl." Heaviness fell on Alex's shoulders.

"A new Super…"

"You're a scientist too, Agent Danvers." He stopped watching the chart, focusing on his human subject. "We've made great progress. Already have all of the genetic material we need. And our subject…" He turned to watch Kara's unresponsive figure on the next cell. "We have enough resources. You are already resistant to kryptonite. We can discard the source subject now. She's dying anyway."

"What?" Alex mumbled.

Doctor Modric opened the hard case on the ground, taking a syringe with a bright green liquid in it.

"No!" Panic consumed her. Alex kicked the platinum bars.

Modric opened Kara's cell.

"Don't!" She begged. "Stop!"

Modric ignored her, and enter her sister's cell.

"Don't touch her!"

He kneeled next to Kara's body.

"Stop! Please!" Alex kept kicking her cell.

This couldn't be happening. It wasn't possible. It had to be a nightmare. Her family was not gonna be broken. She was not gonna lose her sister. She was not gonna lose Kara.

"Kara!" Tears were blurring her sight.

Modric placed his fingers on Kara's neck to check on her pulse.

"Don't touch her!"

Alex grabbed the bars, trying to push them. She was far away from the edge of desperation and chaos. Pulling and pushing them. Pulling and pushing. Pulling and pushing. Pulling and pushing.

"No!"

Modric localized Kara's heart through the hospital gown, and put the needle up to confirm a drop of kryptonite was coming out of it.

"Don't touch her!" Her grip on the bars went tighter.

Modric inserted the needle inside Kara's chest.

"Stop!" Both platinum bars bended to each side under her hands, allowing her to move into Kara's cell, as Modric started to inject the green liquid.

Alex tackled him hard, making him literally fly to the opposite side of the cell. The Doctor was still alive. A furious sister went after him, grabbing him from his throat. An alarm sounded on the back, distracting both of them. _"They're here…"_ the thought came immediately to her mind.

Alex threw Modric far from her sister and her now sensible hearing sense perceived the crack of the man's right leg when he fell. He was going nowhere.

She ignored the doctor, ignored the alarm and rushed to her sister.

"Kara…" Most of the liquid was still in the syringe. She carefully took the needle out from her sister's skin.

She was still unconscious, she was… she wasn't… she wasn't breathing.

"No…" She sobbed. "No…" Her voice was trembling. "Kara?" For a moment she forgot to breath. Tears were falling down as she took her sister's face in her hands. "No, please…" she begged.

She couldn't feel her sister's pulse. "Please open your eyes Kara… please." She wrapped her sister's limp body as hard as she could. "Not you, please Kara… We gotta go home…"

Why her? Anger started to boil inside her. Kara was never mean to anyone; she never hurt anyone on purpose. She helped many people, rescued so many lives. She loved and was loved. Her smiling face came into Alex's mind. The sweet Supergirl, flying in the sky, watching TV next to her, playing with her cape. She didn't deserved what they did to her. She didn't deserve to be treated like that, like a piece of flesh. Everything she always wanted was a family, a home. That scared girl who was always finding courage to stand up for others. Who was always looking up to her human sister for advice. She was so young, she still was that little girl trying to fit in, and keep people together. A girl with a hero's heart, a heart that couldn't be heard anymore. The noise outside was too loud, the alarm, screams, steps, breaking glass, shooting…

Time froze for Alex. Now was different than from when her sister stayed behind after finding Jeremiah. This time, Alex had her sister in her arms to prove there was not hope anymore. Her kind, brave, selfless, cheerful sister looked so fragile in her arms. Her mistreated body looked… lifeless. "You can't leave yet, sis. Not like this… please come back. I can't lose you again… I can't… there's no pod for me to rescue you… I need my little sister." Tears were streaming down her face, falling on Kara's, but the Kryptonian didn't move.

"Alex!" Someone yelled. Recognizing that voice, she looked up to see Hank approaching her.

"Hank…" There was hope. "The serum!" Her deep voice was heartbreaking.

J'onn immediately injected it in Kara.

"The cuffs… I need his finger prints."

Hank followed her gaze until he saw a doctor lying on the floor. The Green Martian shape shifted into Modric, using his finger prints to remove Kara's and Alex's kryptonite cuffs.

Alex hugged her sister. Doing the best she could to block every noise that wasn't Kara's heartbeat.

"Henshaw speaking. I found them! Level 15, right wing. We need medical attention immediately! Over!"

 _"Copy. On my way!"_ Alex could hear Clark's voice on the other side of the earbud. Superhearing was definitely there, she had it.

 _Thump…_ Her head quickly turned to look girl in her arms. Thump…

Everything went silent for Alex in expectancy of the sound. She feared it was her imagination.

_Thump…_

"She's alive, but barely." Confirmed Hank after touching her neck for a few seconds.

Superman arrived noticing his cousin's injured body. He looked at Hank and the Green Martian looked away to the man lying on the other side of the cells room.

With a hardened jaw, Superman started to walk towards Modric.

"No." The Man of Steel stopped when he heard Alex's voice. His cousin's sister was looking at the man on the floor too. "He's mine." She said as she kissed Kara's forehead. "Please take her out of here." She asked to Clark, who in a less than a second, was carefully carrying a fragile Kara.

"I'll stay with her." Reassured J'onn. Clark nodded and ran away.

Alex walked until she was in front of Modric. She easily lifted him up by his neck, making him cry in pain after moving his leg. J'onn J'onzz was impressed, but he wasn't sure of what that man did or the exact reason why Agent Danvers was cold hearted.

"It w-worked…" His green eyes were full of satisfaction and pride of his creation. "Super strength… If only we've completed the treatment. There's a new hero… in town."

"My sister didn't deserve what you did to her. No one does." There were tears in her eyes. She hated him. The image of her sister lying on the ground was tattooed in her mind.

"Arrest me, Agent Danvers." He laughed. "What are my rights?"

"You have no rights." Her voice trembled. All she wanted was revenge. "You tested tension on Kara…" With that, she punched his other leg, feeling pride when she heard the breaking crack accompanied with a scream. "You tested her lungs…" She covered his nose and mouth with one hand, while the other one squeezed his throat; making Modric's eyes open as wide as possible, trying in vain to get free from Alex's grip with his hands. "You tested her navel…" she was about to kick his stomach with her knee when J'onn stopped her.

"Alex! Enough!" Hank was shocked, seeing what Alex was doing. "We don't operate this way." He spoke calmly.

Modric laughed when the agent loose her grip. "He's right, Alex. Heroes don't k-kill…"

"That's the difference between heroes, and soldiers." And with that, only using one hand, she twisted his neck, letting the corpse fall.

…

 _"Guys, take the stairs on your left!"_ James voice spoke in everyone's ears.

 _"You'll see an orange door at the end of the track, I already hacked it, it's a clear way to level 1"_ Said Winn.

Bale was gone. Vega was at the front, followed by Jeremiah, who was supporting Max, after he had been shot on his right leg.

Alex and Hank met them at the stairs, following James instructions too. Both being surprised to see a crowd of multiple species following the team.

"Winn, helped us get them all out. He hacked the whole place." Said Jeremiah, when he caressed his daughter's cheek as soon as he was able to touch her, and confirmed she was fine.

_"You gotta hurry up, guys! Military backup is already on their way."_

"Copy. Winn." Replied Jeremiah.

They all went out. The rest of the Project Cadmus subjects ran away, some of them flew in the middle of the nocturnal sky. As for them, they went into the vehicle, with Johnson driving for his and his team's life.

 _"Just landed at the DEO."_ Clark's voice confirmed.

Finally, no one was being left behind.

TBC...


	8. Chapter 8

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 8

...

_Modric was kneeled next to her sister._

_"Don't touch her!"_

_The syringe was inserted in her heart._

_"Stop!"_

_The liquid went in…_

"No!"

"Agent Danvers…" A woman's voice said.

It was warm, a warm sensation on her skin, moving through her body. She saw a yellow light covering her. It was a nice touch; except that the light's kind touch was interrupted by her stomach. Alex abruptly jerked into a sitting position, sliding her body to her right; but someone else was with her and apparently this person knew what was coming, because the top lights on Alex were pushed out of her way and a trash bucket welcomed her.

This person put the bucket away and handed a napkin to her, offering a glass of water.

"Thank you…" It was Amelia Hamilton who was standing next to her. "… Doctor Hamilton."

"Alex?" Her dad entered the Med Bay area, rushing to hug her.

"Hey…"

"Easy, Alex. You've been through a lot."

"How are you feeling, Agent Danvers?" Hamilton stepped in and started to check Alex's visual response, flashing a light in front of her eyes.

"Kicked… and my head hurts." Said the agent, still blinking to focus things around her.

Jeremiah nodded, while stroking his daughter's back. "Yeah… I had the same when it happened to me."

Alex closed her eyes. Her head was spinning. Her body was shivering now that she was out of that warm light, it was cold. Tiredness took every inch of her body. Her hands were pale and trembling. "I feel so weak…" and her stomach jumped again. The bucket was there for her when she threw up one more time. Jeremiah's arms were holding her from collapsing and lifted her carefully when she finished.

"What…"

"Secondary effects. Metabolism changes, headaches, nervous system… you know about this, Alex." He explained.

"We also had to deal with some medication reactions from your body." Hamilton joined the explanation. "There where wheals on your skin and some of your internal organs were swollen until we could neutralized those allergic reactions."

"But I never had any allergies…" Alex was confused.

"Before Cadmus." Pointed her dad. "Now it is different, and your body will keep fighting for a while against a different DNA than yours. It is normal and we will keep watching over you." He took her face in his hands. "Whatever you feel out of place, let us know immediately, Alex."

"I will, dad."

"Was the treatment completed?"

Modric's cold eyes came to her. She had the clear image of his face while being under her grip.

"No, it wasn't."

"Mine wasn't either." He sighed. "I lost the count of how many times they injected things in me for over a year, but I never had any physical change, until a while ago. However, they used to leave me on the top levels every night, in case any of you showed up; and one night you did. As the treatment started to work I had those horrible physical reactions… My treatment were only three shots, and I started to die after the third one, I was really close to a brain death; thus they stopped it because Modric was improving the treatment. He left me recover for three months, analyzing results, discovering the power of my memory. That was how things were working, and right before the treatment could re-start, your team rescued me.

"We'll be monitoring you 24/7, Agent Danvers." Hamilton was working on the solar bed she was seated on. Alex noticed where she had been lying. "If the sun helps Kara, we thought it was gonna help…"

_Kara_

"Where's Kara?" She interrumped. Remembering the most important thing for her in that moment. The reason why she had broke her own moral code, by mercilessly killing a man.

Both, her dad and Doctor Hamilton looked down. Alex internally freaked out when she saw a defeated Jeremiah.

"Where's Kara?" She insisted, stepping off the bed.

"Wait, Alex…" The man pushed her back to bed, but she pushed him aside, unintentionally sending him far away to the other side of the room, taking some chairs and glass on his way.

"Oh my God…" She was speechless. "Dad…"

Hamilton was already on her way to Jeremiah, and Alex started to walk in his direction too, but she had to stop and support herself on the monitor next to her bed to try to catch some balance when dizziness took her.

"I'm fine…" Jeremiah was standing now.

"What happened here?" Hank quickly entered the room.

"I'm so sorry…" Sobbed Alex.

Hamilton helped Jeremiah to stand up and he went back to hold his daughter, trying to comfort her.

"Hey… I'm fine, Alex. It's ok." He drew circles on her back. "You will definitely have to work on controlling that one."

She knew what they were trying to do; it was not going to work, not on her.

"Where's Kara?" This time she wasn't asking, she was commanding.

There was a long pause in the conversation, causing tension in the air. What was it that they didn't want her to know?

"She's in a coma, Alex." Replied Hank after no one else had the guts to say it out loud. He knew his agent, she had to be aware of the situation, to know the truth; and Alex was one of those "Go straight to the point" persons.

No one dared to look at her in the eyes, because her eyes were a window of pure despair.

Hank clearly saw the conflict inside his agent and supposed that if he were still able to read her mind, he wouldn't like what was inside. Alex's body shivered, but somehow, she managed to keep her posture, containing any emotion while putting a neutral scientist attitude.

"What's her status?" She asked barely audible.

"Your mother, Doctor Hamilton, and me; we've been working on her recovery. Even Maxwell Lord has been helping from a bed." Jeremiah took her left hand.

"Then, what are you doing here?" Alex asked disconcerted, as if people around her were out of common sense. "You should be with…"

"Kara is… stabilized." This time it was Hank's voice.

"How long was I out?" Jeremiah stopped her from stepping forward.

"Two days." He replied.

"Two da…"

"You need to listen, Miss Danvers." Amelia Hamilton half seated on the next bed. "When Superman landed… Kara was dying." She sighed. "Her vitals were almost gone. She was never completely healed from kryptonite bullet injuries when her body was exposed to all of the…" She noticed Alex flinch. "Her inner organs were damaged; all of her systems, nervous, respiratory, digestive, they all collapsed and…" Doctor Hamilton placed her gaze on Alex. "Her brain went into an unconscious state as protection, but mostly… her heart; it was directly exposed to kryptonite, even if it was just a bit." The women stood up to stand in front of her patient. "The damage on a cellular level caused to Kara's body… we all tried to support the huge effort her heart was doing in order to keep her systems alive and working. Agent Danvers…"

"Just say it Hamilton… please. I need to…"

"Kara has died twice since she arrived to the DEO. The first one was a respiratory failure due to the delicate state her lungs are; the second one was her heart… We stopped injecting Lord's serum in her body because even processing it needs a big effort from her heart. I know you want me to… tell you that everything will be…"

"What?" Alex went out of patience.

"It was too much." Hamilton paused for the women in front of her to process everything. "She went into a coma; however, the damage is still there and although we've done everything in our power to help her… there's nothing else we can do now, but wait and hope solar energy works… Her cells are not strong enough now, they're damaged; therefore, her tissues, and organs too. I can't assure that she will live; not even with all of the equipment we have."

…

Winn and James were both at their CATCO's missions office. Cat Grant was not believing about Kara's absence anymore; their boss knew there was a bigger reason behind it and the fact that criminal rates increased over the last two weeks made the city wonder about Supergirl's safety. Their hero was simply gone, and Superman had a few days without showing up too; creating all kind of worriedness on citizens, fearing the worst.

"I don't know if I should…" Winn had both his hands over his head while looking at footage taken from Cadmus. He only dared to look Kara's and other subjects' clips once; he couldn't handle it completely. Neither did James.

"People should know about this, Winn… They need to know what happened. We need society to put some pressure on the government. As citizens we usually ignore things because most of them are hidden or confidential; but this…" He pointed at the monitor. "This is murder, and people have the right to know why we are frequently attacked by other species. I wouldn't be surprised if these extraterrestrial guests we have are only on Earth looking for their owns, all of those captured by Cadmus. And now they messed up with people's heroes."

"What did Hank said about it?"

"He was concerned about everyone's reaction and the chaos this would cause between people and their rulers; however, he wasn't opposed to it. Clark thought the same."

"I really want to do it, but how are gonna explain…" Someone knocked at the door.

Both looked at each other as if caught in the middle of a crime. Technically that office was empty.

"Open the door." That was Cat's voice. "Enough of this, open the door… now!"

James opened the door and the women stepped in with her head up and hard steps, changing the whole ambient inside those walls.

"Witt, James… now you both are going to tell me what is going on…"

"Miss Grant…"

"Leave it for later, Witt." She fulminated him with a gaze, making the guy dig in his chair. "I have no time to be wondering whether you're playing to Batman and Robin or a fake bad quality version of them. I won't ask it again, as every single day these last couple of weeks. Where. Is. Keira?"

None of them replied immediately.

"One day is understandable for a human crisis. Two, that's a holiday. Three, is shameful walking towards the lift…"

"Miss Grant, Kara's mother got sick…" James was coming up with an excuse.

"Foster mother." The women confirmed. "We're not playing Clue, James. I own this company, I know my people, especially those who I see daily. You guys seriously thought I don't know what happens inside each level and office in this building? What happened to Kara? …What happened to Supergirl?"

Things got quiet.

"Wait… you knew?"

"Oh, c'mon Witt…" Cat rolled her eyes. "If I found out about the Flash in a day, did you really think Kara's efforts to hide herself were gonna work? How do you think I achieved to be the Queen of all Media? Ignoring everything around me?" She started to walk side to side. "When I saw the shape shifter on the news the day in which by casualty, my assistant and Supergirl were acting like Rachel McAdams in Mean Girls; later Kara walking like a soldier, giving me whole milk… I discovered Kara's little game. But ok, I respected her privacy. I gave you more than a week while listening to your crap excuses." She stopped and walked towards James. "What. Happened?" She spoke slowly and clear.

"I guess that's what was worrying you… no issues I think." James said to Winn.

"You need to watch something, Miss Grant." Winn turned to face the monitors while James brought a chair for Cat to sit on it.

…

All she wanted to do was going out of that room. Jeremiah and Hamilton forced her to stay on bed for a while, but she couldn't handle that. Restlessness didn't allow her to sleep. How could she peacefully sleep while her sister was fighting to stay alive?

She wasn't lying on the solar bed, but seated on it.

"Of course you were not gonna sleep." For some reason, Hank decided to stay at the Med Bay.

"You have all of my respect as my boss… but as a bodyguard…"

"I am not here as Hank Henshaw. Just as J'onn J'onzz." He took a chair and seated in front of her. "How are you?"

"I'm fine… and stressed, because I should be helping my sister, fixing all this mess."

"Why don't you fix yourself first?

She got it right away. Maybe J'onn couldn't read her mind anymore, but he knew her probably as much as Kara did.

Alex felt heaviness in her chest and suddenly it was hard to breathe. She was ignoring what happened covering things up with her concern for Kara; yes, her sister's life was more important, but she couldn't ignore what Kara's situation pushed her to do. Both stayed quiet until Alex broke up.

"I shouldn't have killed him…" She hardened her jaw, taking air in to hold her tears. "I couldn't help it… What he did to Kara. The experiments, when he punched her, when he injected her with kryptonite, every time I saw her lying under that green light; struggling to breath, to stay awake… getting weaker as time passed by. She even said goodbye to me…"

Tears escaped when Kara's speech came back to her ears. She stopped talking hoping J'onn would say something, but he didn't.

"I hated him… I wanted to destroy him. To make him suffer at least what he did to her, to my dad, and I don't know to how many others." Her fists were closed and tensed. "He took me for his stupid treatment, but my pain was nothing compared to Kara's… he had to pay for that. I knew that as soon as I had a chance to make him pay, I would do it… I know I shouldn't have let my feelings overcome the situation. It wasn't professional. Out of ethics."

"As soldiers, we take action and kill if the situation forces us to." J'onn finally spoke. "Getting him off Kara was part of the job; however, killing a defenseless man was ruthless, Alex. There are consequences."

The girl's shoulders fell and she couldn't stand J'onn's eyes.

"I wasn't thinking, all I wanted was revenge…"

"A revenge that was for Kara to take."

Alex nodded resignedly.

"I do can tell you that if it wasn't you, it was going to be Superman, one of his subjects, or someone else. Modric was digging his own grave." He waited until she looked at him again. "There is no excuse for what you did, Alex… But you have to know, I read his mind while you were holding him, and I saw what he did and what he was planning to do next; considering his power in the government, laws meant nothing. Again, there is no excuse for what you did, but you did save lives that were going to be threated by him."

"That doesn't make me feel any better." She said. "I am responsible for what I did, for what I allowed myself to do."

"What I can tell you, Alex. Is that if I had those who murdered my family in front of me, I would probably do the same you did." He looked down. "Past is past. The fact you are taking responsibility for your acts proves you've learned from it; now move on."

There was another pause. Alex cleared her mind, then faced J'onn.

"I wanna be with her, J'onn. Can you take me to her, please?"

…

It was like a flashback. Her sister was unconscious but at least this time she was being helped and kept alive.

Her body was lying on a solar bed and there were sunlight emitters on each corner around her. She had an oxygen mask on her mouth and nose, which according to Doctor Hamilton, it was supporting Kara's lungs. She had a bunch of wires around her head and chest, monitoring her vitals and brain activity.

J'onn helped her to seat on Kara's bed.

"Superman went to the Fortress of Solitude, in case he could find any relevant information to help Kara." Alex was completely focus on her sister and J'onn understood there was nothing else that mattered for her in that moment. "I'll leave you alone." He left the room.

She took her pale hand. Although the air was warm from the emitters, Kara's skin was colder than usual. Alex laid next to the Kryptonian, passing an arm on her, half hugging her to provide more warmth to her body.

"Hey…" She placed her chin on the girl's shoulder to speak directly to her ear. "I'm here, Kara. I'll always be here." She gulped. _"Please don't cry again, Danvers."_ "I know you're tired, I know you are… I'm so sorry, I just don't know how we can help you any further than what we're doing… even with all of the equipment, there hasn't been any progress, Kara…" She placed her forehead on Kara's side head. "I feel so useless, sis. I can't protect or help you now, not even with all of my knowledge. It doesn't matter if I killed Modric, cause nothing has changed. You're still in pain…" And tears finally were free to fall on the bed. "I also know you said goodbye… again." She held her breath for what she was about to say. "Even while sleeping you're fighting. I know it is painful, and hard; I also know how strong you are, but if you want to go Kara…" Alex found it hard to finish the sentence. "…go ahead. None of us would be mad at you. Because you're not giving up, you've fought so much; you deserve all the rest you want, and love. You're not disappointing anyone… If you wake up, there's a long recovery waiting for you, probably some pain and readjustment; your family and friends are waiting for you… I am waiting for you. You are free to decide, Kara. I understand if you are tired enough, you went through circumstances no one should go through. If you wanna leave, sis, it is ok." She hugged her tighter. "If you wanna go with you parents, it's ok. I will miss you a lot, but I do understand. I knew you were ready for that when you lifted Fort Rozz out of Earth; I knew it when you let go Hank's hand, when you said goodbye to me in that cell… I love you, and whatever you choose I will support that, because you're my sister, I know you, and if love was bonding us, now our blood is… " Alex stopped talking; realizing what she had to do to help her sister.

This time she was really going to be Supergirl's hero.

TBC…


	9. Chapter 9

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 9

...

"Citizens of National City and from our beloved Nation; this is Cat Grant, former CEO of CATCO Worldwide Media. As many of you are already informed about the power, and coverage from this company; our reputation is sustained on transparency, truth and communication; therefore, it is my duty as the head of CATCO Worldwide Media to inform our audience about real facts, backed with honesty and up-to-date content. However, today I am not speaking as a business woman, but as any other citizen from this country.

These previous weeks, our cities have been exposed to high rates of crime, regarding the absence of both Supergirl, and Superman. Today, I do have to let you know… they did not abandon us.

The content I am about to show you, has been delivered from trustful sources. It consists on real footage coming from the headquarters of a governmental extra official division, and just as it happened with me, many of you will understand the causes of most accidents occurred in the last ten years, and the recent disappearance of our beloved heroes. Everyone deserves the truth. As a warning advice, do not expose youth to what you are about to watch… viewer discretion is strongly advised."

…

After a few hours trying to convince her dad that she was ok, Alex, and Jeremiah entered the lab. Eliza was on a microscope but stood up as soon as she saw her daughter in a wheelchair being pushed by her father.

"Oh my God! Alex!" Her mom wrapped her in a tight hug. "You should be resting. What are you doing here?"

"I came to help, mom."

Eliza looked disgusted at her husband. "You know your own daughter and how stubborn she is." He said on his defense. "At least at could put her on a wheelchair."

"Well… I guess we'll be having a Mario Kart race in here." No one noticed Max was on the other corner of the lab until he spoke, and just like Alex, he was seated on a wheelchair, working with some samples.

"Mom, I know what I need to do to help Kara."

"What? No, Alex. You should be resting in…"

"Mom, listen to me, please." The woman standing in front of her sighed, and seated on her chair.

"I want to hear this…" Max rolled his chair to approach the group. "I mean, if you don't mind." He said after being threated by Alex's gaze.

"He's been supporting me, Alex." Eliza came up on his defense. "Besides, his serum saved Kara before."

Alex didn't entirely trust that man. Not after the number of times he acted against Kara; but in fact, she also recognized what his help have done on her sister.

"Kara's cells are damaged…"

Hamilton came into the lab, interrupting the agent's explanation.

"My apology."

"It's ok." Reassured Alex. "Kara's cells are dying; even if the serum was able to neutralize the effects of kryptonite, the damage is still there, and her heart won't last much longer keeping her body alive while her systems are failing." She was moving her hands from one way to another, trying to be as clear as possible with her suggestion. "It is only a matter of time for her cells to completely die; nonetheless, there is hope… When Modric took Kara's samples for his experiment, Kara was healthier; this happened before all of that harm was inflicted on her. He was a scientist; he must have taken at least blood and bone marrow from her, in order to obtain precise DNA information. The same DNA and cells taken from her were injected in my body; cells that are strong enough to regenerate and multiply, strong enough for a mitosis process…"

"But Alex, it's been days since…" Said Eliza.

"I know, mom…"

"We do not know for sure if her cells haven't been completely merged with your own." Jeremiah placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Can you both just trust me, please?!" She lost her patience. There was no time to waste. "I am a scientist just as you both are, I am totally aware of my words, and the facts behind my posture". As no one else spoke, she continued: "If my body is still reacting to her DNA it means there are still 100% Kryptonian cells floating through it. We need to find them, get them out, and place them back in Kara, thus her body can start to regenerate."

"We have no guarantee that it will work, Alex." Jeremiah crossed his arms thinking about her idea.

"It's the only option I see right now, Dad."

"But…" Intervened a worried Eliza. "You're still weak, Alex. Your body is in a delicate state right now, trying to find a balance, fighting itself. If we mess with it in its current condition, we would only cause a worse break out; and you might be affected…"

"My sister… your daughter…" She pointed, "…is dying in the next room." She was taking deep breaths to stay calmed. "I'm not going to seat down and watch her die. Kara has taken risks on behalf of all of us, several times in the past." She looked straight to her parents. "If this is our only chance right now, it's a risk I'm more than willing to take; and now… you can either help me or be an obstacle, but I can tell you, no one will stop me from helping my sister."

Someone else entered the lab.

"I could read everyone's minds from the main corridor." It was Hank Henshaw. "Although I want to stop you, Alex… I support whatever decision you take."

In that moment Alex whished he could read her mind so her huge "Thank you" could be heard.

"I'm in." Max spoke, making Alex remember he was still there.

"I am at your service, Agent Danvers." Hamilton agreed.

The agent placed her eyes on the couple, waiting for whatever they had to say; noticing frustration and stress in their looks. But she was aware that the two of them knew they were not going to stop her. She could imagine what both her mom and dad were thinking about putting in risk not only one but the two of their daughters.

There was no evidence to back her idea. It was a mystery whether she was gonna be fine during and after taking out some cells from her; just as to know if those cells were gonna help or get Kara worse. She simply had to try; she had a good feeling about it.

"I'll help you." Jeremiah's voice made her feel safe. Notwithstanding, Eliza seemed to keep struggling.

All eyes were on her now.

"I'm with you, Alex. Whatever you need me to do, I'm here." And an amazing relief sensation filled her completely; her mother, the hardest one, was on her side.

"You know how this works, dear." Jeremiah went down to look at her. "We would literally have to drain you. Take some blood, check on it, then put it back in. There is a probability your body won't stand to be losing blood momentarily…"

"I might have an idea for that." Lord raised his hand. "Just as a donations these days, we could use equipment to take out blood at the same time it is going back to her body. Usually, machines take specific cells from blood before sending it back to the donor's body. Machines are designed to take these cells; however, Kryptonian cells are unknown to be accurately detected." He grabbed his chin while his mind was running. "Do we have Kara's cells samples?" He asked Eliza.

"Yes, I took a few when she arrived."

"Perfect! We need to take a look at them and we would have to identify them manually. With Jeremiah, Eliza, Hamilton, and me, we have eight eyes on Alex's blood. By the time someone spots Kryptonian cells, we'll have Kara's cells ready on a microscope to be tested with Alex's body cells; we will have the chance to see how they react with one another before putting them in Kara."

 _"A smart jerk."_ Thought Alex. _"Smart… but still a jerk."_

"That's… actually a good idea." Alex frowned.

"What's with the tone of surprise?" Max pointed at himself shocking his head, as offended.

"Should we start then?" She sighed.

…

Cat Grant had both guys on the balcony. Winn and James were questioned a hundred times about Kara's current state. Just the fact of going into details made Kara's friends uncomfortable, but Cat's panicked reactions while watching the footage demanded all kind of explanations.

Winn was the one with longer time in the company; considering he was near Miss Grant every week, he never saw his boss as a heartbroken soul. Cat Grant was always in control, and that was precisely what she did to say that speech. It took a lot of "Keep your posture" mantras, but it worked.

The problem was, nobody expected people's reactions. CATCO Worldwide Media had definitely unleashed beasts. As a result, it was a responsibility of the three of them, to find a peaceful solution.

…

Everything was getting set; Alex was on a bed, the equipment to take her blood was ready next to it. As for the rest of people inside the room, next to the equipment's monitor there was a desk with a microscope on it, containing a Kara's cells sample.

"We will start by taking out 200 milliliters so the shock in your body is not a dangerous one." Max was typing numbers on the equipment. "The monitor will show us the sample and let us now if there is an abnormal cell in it."

The four scientists were seated in front of the screen and Eliza was the closest one to Alex, holding her hand. Tension was definitely there.

"I'll be fine, mom."

"I know you will, Alex."

Lord made sure the stats were secure. "Almost… just…"

Superman entered the room followed by Hank, taking everyone out of their own thoughts. Both looked altered.

"Something happened." Kara's cousin was serious. "CATCO made an international announcement, showing footage from Cadmus."

"What?" Asked Eliza without leaving Alex's side.

"People saw what happened to Kara, and to many others." Hank was standing on the door.

"How did they…"

"Winn and James." Replied Superman. "They talked about it with me and J'onn, before. Neither of us were opposed to the idea of burning Cadmus through media, since society had the right to understand several extraterrestrial attacks and human loses in the last years."

"However, the situation is out of control." Hank approached a small TV on the top of a corner in the room and turned it on until he found the right channel.

Everything was crowded, many people were out of their homes, outside governmental buildings in multiple cities, complaining about relatives they lost in what apparently the government covered as 'accidental' fires, earthquakes, crashes; National City was another story, since the main focus was Supergirl and her safety, wondering if their hero was still alive. Adults, young people, even kids had signs with support messages for Supergirl, or insults to politicians.

"Crap." Was the only thing that came out of Max's mouth.

"Damn it!" Said Hank.

"What should we do?" Asked Alex from her bed.

"You, nothing." Ordered her boss.

"I'll go and fix this mess." Clark was on her way out of the room.

"Wait. How?" Jeremiah turned off the TV to focus on a plan.

"J'onn J'onzz has informed me what you will do for Kara." The Man of Steel looked at the girl on the bed. "The House of El would be honored to have you as a member of our family, and for this action, I am in an endless debt with you, Alex." He lifted his gaze to everyone in the room. "Kara is the most important now. Please take care of her and Alex, while I go to CATCO… I need to speak to everyone." In a blink of an eye he left, leaving each of them disoriented in an awkward silence.

"Everything is ready." Max took his place next to others.

"I'll be looking after Kara while you're here." Said Hank exiting the room right after touching his agent's shoulder as sign of support.

"Thank you." Nodded Alex. "Whatever happens…" Her voice was serious. "Don't stop it."

"Alex…" Jeremiah was ready to counter her.

"Please, dad." She begged. "I could never forgive the person who dares to stop it. Please don't… I love you both. I'm ready." She took a deep breath and waited for the process to start.

…

"You should've seen people out there." It was one hour since he left the room letting the team working to find life in Alex's blood. J'onn was seated next to Kara. She was paler and her heartbeating was slower than before. "They're going crazy about everything that has happened recently." He took a look at the monitor to check on her vitals. It was not good.

"I wish I could read your mind, to help you out of coma, or do something to cause activity in your brain… Kara, hang on. There's a bunch of people working to help you right now. You have to see Jeremiah after all this time; him, Eliza, and Alex are here for you. Seriously, if your sister was tough, you just raised her up to a new level of badass. Doctor Hamilton, Maxell Lord, Winn, James, Cat Grant, Superman, me… we're all hoping you wake up soon. National City is hoping so too."

Something got his attention. Numbers on the monitor were going down.

There was something wrong.

…

Alex was breathing heavily, after the fifth time blood was taken out, her body started to shake. Even when her blood was slowly returning to her veins, she realized she was not ready for it. But she had to hold on to the possibility of saving Kara. She had to. This was the ninth time blood was going out, and everything was hurting, as if she was injected with Modric's shots for the first time.

Eliza was trembling next to her, her grip loosen as time passed by.

"Mom?" She said between gasps.

"Yes, Alex? I'm here."

"I'm… fine." Alex felt a warm hand caressing her hair. It was her mom.

"Alex. Can you keep…?"

"There!" Jumped Jeremiah in surprised.

Alex fought her own pain and dizziness to open her eyes when she heard her dad.

"Yes, that's definitely different from us." Confirmed Max.

Hamilton was already stopping the equipment to allow Jeremiah to take the samples. "Wow. They aren't that different from human cells."

 _"Finally."_ There was hope. Alex felt relieved. Breathing was hard but she didn't care; there was hope for Kara. While struggling to stay awake, she could hear everyone's steps, putting samples on the microscope.

"Max, return Alex's blood to her body, we already have enough." That was Jeremiah's voice.

"I'll be right back, honey." Alex felt her mom let go her hand to go to check the microscope.

"What do you see, Mrs. Danvers?" Hamilton asked.

"Nothing is happening…" The scientist was unsure. "It's like… cells are next to one another, but it is like if they were not familiar with their presence anymore, like… wait!"

 _"God, Rao… anyone, please…"_ In her mind, all she could do was beg. Still fighting to keep consciousness, she didn't allow herself to give up. She needed to know.

"Alex, are you ok?" There was someone standing next to her, it smelled like Hamilton's perfume.

"It's working!" Eliza said full of joy. "Cells from Alex are absorbing the damaged ones and starting a mitosis pro…"

Voices started to fade away. They were very low; however, even when they were low in Alex's ears, there was a sound out of place. It was an alarm.

"Oh God… No…" That was Eliza. Alex knew the sound and in a second, Hank was there.

"Doctor Danvers! Her heart stopped again!" Her boss sounded concerned.

She wanted to scream, to get out of bed and run to Kara, but she couldn't. _"No!"_ She couldn't feel her body. She was losing consciousness. _"Stay awake, Alex… Kara."_ It was useless _"Stay awake! Stay awake! Stay awake! Stay awa…"_

"Eliza, Hamilton, you go!" Her dad's voice was the last thing she heard.

…

It was warm. Something warm on her face. Maybe it was the solar bed again but there was something weird because there was a song, no, not a song… birds were singing. Air was blowing, was she outside? It smelled different than air in the city, tough. It smelled like… salt.

When she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was the sky, no clouds on it, just pure blue.

"I really thought you were gonna stay there forever, waiting for your prince to come."

That voice.

Kara!

Alex turned to her left and there she was, Kara was next to her, looking at the sky. Both were lying on sand. She knew that place. They visited many times while growing up. She seated, still disconcerted.

"What…"

"Are you ok?" Kara seated too, looking at her with curiosity.

It was Midvale. It was the beach next to their home, and the birds… She looked up to watch seagulls flying above their heads.

They were not very far from the sea and she noticed she had no shoes on; as if they were just relaxing next to the beach. What were they doing there?

"Alex!" Kara's voice brought her back. Her sister was concerned now.

"Sorry… I'm fine." She mumbled.

"You're not drunk, are you?" Yes, that was definitely her sister. She was there.

"No… you know I'm not."

Kara smiled and after so much time, Alex felt warmth inside her chest.

"Good, because the sun is setting now, and you don't wanna miss it." She looked up to watch the sun on the horizon. "I could stay here forever." She said closing her eyes, enjoying sunlight on her skin.

"You're literally a solar panel, of course you could stay like that."

"Shhhh…" Kara asked. "You know how much I love listening to seagulls."

"You are probably the only one on Earth who loves those birds. I mean, can't you hear them?"

"I told you we didn't have birds on Krypton."

It was indeed a beautiful sunset, the air was cool; the sound of waves was relaxing. A perfect afternoon at the beach.

"Yeah, you were the creepy one staring at them all the time, instead of going to swim like the rest of us."

Kara laughed; leaning her head on Alex's shoulder, to which the older sister leaned back on Kara's head.

"Always embarrassing the older sister…"

 _"I'm sorry I embarrassed y-you."_ Kara's goodbye speech in that cell came to Alex's mind. Breaking the fantasy, ripping apart that peaceful moment. Her chest was hard now.

"Kara?"

"Mmm?" Kara was still leaning on her; she was there. She was safe. Both were safe.

"Are we dead?"

The question made Kara seat back to normal and Alex instantly missed her head on her shoulder.

"Why are you asking me that?" She frowned. "Alex? What's going on?" She grabbed her sister's hand when she saw tears about to fall from her eyes.

"Because if we're not dead, then this is a dream…"

Kara cupped her face, starting to wipe tears from her cheeks.

"A dream from which I don't want to wake up, Kara. I…" She grabbed Kara's hands on her face to keep them there.

"But you have to wake up, Alex." There she was, her sweet little sister. Always tender.

"No…" She didn't want to go back to reality. Not the DEO. Not that bed. Not that room in which her sister was dying.

"Wake up, Alex." She lifted her gaze see those kind blue eyes once more. "Everyone is waiting for you."

She opened her eyes again. The ceiling from the med bay welcomed her.

TBC…


	10. Chapter 10

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 10

...

"Are you comfortable with this?" James asked Superman, as some employees from CATCO were setting cameras ready; many of them completely nervous for being so close to the Man of Steel for the first time. Superman was going live.

"I am also responsible for the chaos. I believe that if people hear me, they would calm down."

"Ok people, we're almost there." With quick steps, Cat stood next to Clark. "We are ready. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"I am fine. Thank you, Miss Grant."

"Ok. Good luck." She smiled at him and walked out of cameras with the rest of the team.

A cameraman raised his hand. "Live in 3, 2, 1…"

"To anyone who is watching or listening to this, I salute you. This is Superman speaking.

Regarding recent events involving real footage from a governmental extra official division, to which Supergirl was exposed to, just as many other extraterrestrial species; yes, it is real. Personally, I understand your pain, your anger, your impotence; I've faced those feelings before due to the nature of the main reason why I am here on Earth. I lost my family, my people, my planet; although I have faced many other villains, if there is something I learned on each combat, was to never feed pride, or hate; but to make justice, to restore order in the most peaceful way.

At the moment, Supergirl is in a delicate condition; for me, hating those who harmed her and destroying them, would only feed hate and fear… and none of that will help her get better. Whenever we are exposed into pain, regret or difficult circumstances, it is up to us to fall in despair and blind selfishness; or to take courage to stand up and find a solution being just, honest and respectful… because as a friend of mine said once, at the end of the day, it is a matter of values, and if there is something I've learned in this planet, is integrity and honor.

There are no valid arguments for the way things were being operated in that place; no specie deserves to be treated like that. None of your relatives or friends deserved to suffer the way they did, they deserved to live. Nonetheless, past is past, and we cannot change things that had happened, what we can indeed change, is our way to face our current situation. If violence was used against all of these species, including humans; more violence won't solve the problem, it'll make it worse.

Both, Supergirl and me, grew up on Earth. We fight with integrity, because we learned that from you. Remember those values; remember about what the real human nature is… to support, to share, to create. Today, I am here to remind you what Supergirl and me learned from you; compassion, because it takes courage to be strong and just… Because it takes courage to forgive, and be better than those who causes us pain. It takes courage to stand up for others with empathy.

To each of you, you are much stronger than you know. If they brought tragedy and shame, then I invite you to honor yourself, to honor humanity and its values. Thank you."

…

"Alex…" Her mom placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her in bed.

"Mom… what happened? Where's Kara? How is she?"

"Take it easy, sweetheart. You passed out, and have been unconscious for almost ten hours now." She looked over her watch.

"How is Kara, mom?" Alex feared the answer.

From Eliza's eyes fell a couple of tears and Alex's heart contracted. Time stopped too and reality didn't exist… but her mom was… smiling?

"It took us longer than before to bring her back… we had no choice but to take the risk. Your father injected cells directly in Kara's heart… She was not responding, we thought it was too much for her heart to take and process… until suddenly it worked, Alex… Her body is recovering; slowly, but it is."

Alex ignored her dumb movements and forgot about that damn bed; she rushed to hug her mom, who groaned in pain after the strong embrace.

"I'm sorry…" Was everything she managed to say before hugging the woman once again.

"You were right." Eliza's arms tighten around her daughter. "You saved her."

They stayed like that for a moment.

For Alex, there was something behind those words. Hard to accept, but for a second, she thanked Modric for his experiments.

"Even if I f-feel horrible… saying this. Modric made possible for me to help Kara. I killed him mom, and after this I feel worse for having done that…"

"Shhh… it's in the past, Alex."

_"I'm so sorry, Modric. That wasn't the way to fix things. I'm so sorry… Now, I've learned that lesson. Although you almost killed my sister, you also saved her. Thank you."_

"Can I see her, mom?"

"You should rest…"

"Then… can I move to her room? Bed and everything."

…

Kara had a better color. She was still in a coma and according to her parents and Doctor Hamilton, Supergirl was recovering. There was a long way to regain complete health, but her sister was alive. She was no longer in danger. No one was gonna come after any of them to run tests. They were safe now. There was no cold, no platinum cells, no kryptonite; just sunlight and hope.

The room was quiet, Kara's vitals being a melody in her ears. It was late night and with huge effort she went out of her bed and climbed into Kara's solar bed, making her feel exhausted, but at least she made it there. Alex hugged her sister again, but this time she was happy, she had a weak smile on her face. Supergirl was not dying anymore; she was recovering; her heartbeat sounded so clear in her ears.

"Wake up, Kara." She whispered. "Everyone is waiting for you."

After many nights, finally, she could sleep well; listening to Kara's heart.

…

"Whatever happens to Keira, please let me know."

It was close to sunrise. They have spent the whole night in that building. Cat Grant was in her office, the door was closed and her, Winn, James, and Superman were seated on the couches drinking tea and cofee. Things started to calm down after Superman's speech and CATCO's team went to the streets, covering society's peaceful walks. On the other side, many politicians were being questioned about Cadmus and its operations; naturally, they were in the middle of press conferences saying plenty of words to evade trouble, but without concrete facts… only nice things to hear every politician was instructed to say to make time. Many denied being aware of that division's existence. More of them went straight to jail. Some others confirmed they were closing Cadmus temporary, and all of them compromised to use those headquarters in benefit of extraterrestrial research, to act respectfully towards other species, aiming to generate peaceful interactions between humanity, and guests from space. A few others offered public apologies to those heroes who always helped their cities, feeling ashamed after… _"All the harm people under our charge caused you… there is no honor, no respect in treating our heroes like that. After all the help you've provided, after all the lives you have saved. Our sincere apology for humanity's behavior. Our nation will always regret recent events. Each of us understand if you don't wish to help us anymore…"_

It was a time of change.

"We will, Miss Grant." Replied James.

"Even if you have to cover my face for me to not see a thing on the way, I would like to visit her when things settle down a bit."

Winn and James looked at each other in surprise of Cat's concern. Was she really willing to do that?

"Please excuse me." Superman stood up. "I have to leave. My cousin is my priority in this moment."

"Of course."

"I am aware you know both sides of Supergirl's life." Even when Superman was in a humble position, he was intimidating in Cat's sight. "Please, respect Kara's wish to stay undercover."

"Kara Danvers has my loyalty, and deep respect… and you have my word, Superman." Cat nodded.

With that, he left.

…

Everything was black. If that was a dream, it was absolutely bad and boring. Nothing in it. No images, no sounds… no sounds? No, there was _Beep_ sound, panic filled her mind. Was she still in Cadmus _"No more, please. No more… just let me die."_ If there was a Beep sound, it meant she was alive, and the sound was getting clearer and louder. _"Please be a nightmare…"_ Then a familiar pain overwhelmed her… no, she was not dreaming, she was waking up. _"I don't wanna wake up. I don't wanna see Modric…"_ She could feel her extremely exhausted body, not even having strength to open her eyes. _"It's better that way… If I don't wake up, no more tests."_ Tests. Tests. Tests. There was something about that word, bigger than pain… it was fear. _"Alex!"_ Her sister was the purpose of every test made on her. Alex was in pain, she saw her on the next cell, she hugged her, then they took her away. She needed to wake up, despite pain, she had to help her sister, her sister was suffering. She wished to open her eyes but her body was not responding. _"C'mon Kara! Wake up! Alex needs you…"_

Her eyes slowly opened, adjusting to sunlight above her. _"Sunlight?"_ It took her a while, but when she was able to focus, she realized it was a solar bed; why would they help her heal again in Cadmus? Did they need to make more tests on her? She was scared. _"No."_ she fought her own instincts. _"I need to help Alex."_

Her body hurt, she was not completely healed yet… Also, something was different. The ceiling behind the up side of the solar bed was different. Was it a new room inside Cadmus? No. She had seen that ceiling before. But that couldn't be.

She heard a heartbeat different than hers. Ignoring the pain, she was concentrating on her body, that was how she felt a mask on her nose and mouth. Breathing was hard but not painful anymore, no burning, no itching. There was something around her torso. Was it a strap to keep her tied to bed? _"The cuffs!"_ She didn't feel exposed to kryptonite anymore. Were they gone? If she had no cuffs, then hold her with straps was useless. But this strap was… warm. Unless… the heartbeat; it was not a strap, it was an arm. She knew that arm's weight on her body, it had been there before, many times. She knew that heartbeat pattern. Soft air blew on her shoulder. She knew it, and its owner. _"Alex?"_ Was that her sister? Was she next to her?

She tried to speak, but it was hard. She tried to move, but couldn't. It took a few seconds for her brain to reconnect with her body and send movement commands. She was so drained from energy.

"A…" Why was it so hard to speak?

"Al…" She tried again. _"Please body. Wake up!"_

She took a deep breath, and gulped to clear her throat.

"Alex…" It came out as a whisper, but it was better than nothing.

Did someone come to wake her up? No, that was not Eliza's voice. Immediately, she noticed Kara's heartbeat sounded different. She felt her sister's chest rising up differently under her arm.

"Alex…" That was Kara's voice. Her eyes snapped open, and she supported her body on her right elbow, to look down at the girl next to her.

A couple of tired blue eyes saw her. She was awake. Alex blinked.

Was she awake?

Kara was wake!

She took off her arm from Kara to squeeze her own cheek. I hurt. This wasn't a dream. It was real.

"Kara…"

Beneath the oxygen mask, she saw a weak smile.

Alex couldn't even speak. She wanted to say many things. She wanted to run out of the room and tell everyone Kara was awake. She wished to jump, to clap, and to yell a big _"Thank you!"_ But she only managed to sob, hug her sister again, and cry like a baby.

"Ouch!" Kara groaned.

"Oh… sorry. Still working on it." Kara's eyes were confused now. "Long story, I'll… tell you later."

"Are… you ok?" Yes, that was selfless Kara.

"Are you… kidding me?" She said between sobs. "I almost lost you. You're the one who just woke up."

"Where a-are we?"

It took long for Alex to be able to reply.

"At the DEO." She pushed the upper side of the solar bed to allow Kara's eyes a better sight. There were sunlight emitters on each corner anyway. She seated next to Kara looking down straight to her to make sure her sister was focus on her. "We were rescued, Kara. We're safe."

Her heart broke when a tear escaped Kara's eyes.

"I am alive…"

"Oh my God…" She said lowering herself to capture her sister's cheeks with kisses. "How do you feel?"

"Covered in tears… and saliva."

Alex couldn't help but laugh. "Jerk…"

"I-I can't even move… so tired." She made a short pause. "And hungry…"

"Yup, you're back… That's a good new for me, a very good one." Alex took a tissue from a box and started to clean Kara's face. "But a horrible one for you, because I don't think your stomach is ready for food yet. I'll let everyone know you're awake." She was about to push the communicator button, but Kara stopped her.

"Wait…"

"Yes?"

"Can you just… wait a bit and lay with me for a minute?"

"Always." She laid back.

Both staring the ceiling.

"Be honest… w-what happened to you?"

Alex heard how hard it was for Kara to speak, her voice was breaking in whispers. This was not the right time for big efforts.

"Don't speak too much, Kara… you need to rest. Your lungs are still recovering. You're still healing."

"So do you." Alex was caught off guard. "Your heart… it tells me so. Y-you're exhausted too. He injected you…" Her sister's voice trembled in fear.

"I am fine, Kara." She grabbed her hand. "Only headaches, some trembling… but nothing bad."

"I w-was so scared… when they took y-you away." There was another tear falling on the bed.

"How do you think I felt when you stayed in Cadmus? But we're here now, sis. I'm here with you."

"What happened to… your body?"

Alex took a deep breath.

"I will need your help controlling a couple of things and…"

"What? Alex…" The sound from Kara's vitals showed she was slightly altered.

"Hey, shhh… it's ok, Kara." She turned to placed her arm around her. "My body somehow accepted it… but I only got two shots, not the whole Doctor Frankenstein intervention… I can hear your heart just as you hear mine, and I will need your help with the permanent shot of adrenaline in my body, cause I also got superstrenght…"

"What?"

"I'm fine… for real." She placed her head on Kara's shoulder.

"You were e-exposed to kryptonite, are you…"

"Not affected by kryptonite."

"Wow…" Kara's heartbeat went back to normal. "Then…"

"We share blood now… I mean, my body was rejecting it at the beginning, still is; but that's normal, after all, my perfect body was like _'No! What are these bad quality annoying cells coming from a weirdo Kryptonian?'_ You know…" She faked a voice and Kara's laugh filled her with joy.

They stayed silent for a couple minutes.

"I'll help you… control it."

She smiled, of course her sister was going to support her in every way she could. "Now we'll have fair fights. But first… there's a long recovery time for you."

"I love you."

"Mmm… I kind of like you…" She joked. "I love you too, with all my hybrid heart." She kissed her sister's cheek again. "You have no idea of how much, Kara Zor-El".

…

"Miss Grant!" It was close to 10:00 am when they guy entered her office running.

"Witt! What the heck?" She dropped her coffee on the desk.

"Kara woke up…"

"What? When?"

"This morning… she will need more rest, but I thought you should know she's getting better."

The Queen closed her eyes and smiled, feeling all frustration fade away.

"Those are wonderful news, Witt! Thank you." There was a strange tone of voice on her voice… too kind, considering it was coming from Cat Grant. "Let me know when I can visit her… and now, go back to your desk, there's plenty of work to do."

TBC…


	11. Chapter 11

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 11

...

After texting Winn, Alex left her phone on the small table next to Kara's bed. Alex was about to push the communicator button, but stopped as Kara winced when she tried to move. She couldn't. Only her head could turn either left or right.

"No, no… Kara." Warned Alex.

The older sister stood out of bed, supporting herself on the edge of the solar bed to not fall.

"Wait… you shouldn't…"

"I can handle this. Besides, everyone will be here in a few seconds; you'll need space, and having me in your bed won't make things eas…" Alex shocked when she noticed blood on Kara's hospital gown. _"Her navel."_ For a moment she felt guilty believing maybe her arm accidentally slipped on it while sleeping, but no… blood was just starting to stain the fabric, it was fresh. "Oh no… Kara, your navel, I have to check on it. I'll call them too." She pushed the button.

"Yes?" That was Eliza's voice.

Kara felt so happy to hear her voice, after thinking she was not going to see them again. They were coming. She couldn't wait any longer for that.

"Mom, Kara is awake…" Alex's tone was half excited, half concerned. "I need your help, her navel is bleeding."

_"Already on our way."_

"Our?" They were definitely coming. Alex relaxed a bit when, despite pain, Kara was weakly smiling, expecting the moment to see her whole family.

She started to carefully cut the fabric to have access to her sister's abdominal area; the Kryptonian shivered when that part of her body was exposed. Alex felt anger inside when she saw the red swollen skin around the stained gauze. She took a quick look to Kara's eyes, and when she saw fear in them, she assumed her sister was awake when the incision was done during tests. How could anyone endure that pain?

People entered the room, vanishing fear from Kara's eyes.

"My God… Kara." Eliza rushed to caress her hair and cheek. "Welcome. I'm so happy to see you awake, sweetheart."

Behind Eliza, someone else was stepping towards her.

"You stay with her, I got her navel." Eliza moved to her side, giving access to Jeremiah.

In between the flashing light from solar emitters, she saw her foster father's silhouette, and the image of Superman getting her out of the pod came to her mind. The man got closer and placed a hand on her head. Both stared for a few seconds. He was not as tall as she remembered him to be… or perhaps she was the one who got taller; none of that mattered, Jeremiah was alive, he was fine, he was there.

"Hey…" His kind smile was still the same Kara had stock in her memory, and she couldn't help it but cry. Jeremiah placed his forehead on Kara's to give some comfort.

"It's you… I missed you." She whispered.

"I missed you too, so much, Kara. I am so proud to know what you have become… Also, Alex told me you still wear the glasses."

Kara was sobbing; the uncontrolled contractions of her torso while doing it caused more pain, and she let a small groan escape.

"I'm sorry… I made you cry."

"No… it's fine."

Eliza stopped the bleeding, both her and her daughter, finished cleaning the wound and started to place a clean gauze on it.

"Your body is a real healing mess right now from the inside, sweetie." Explained Eliza. "It is normal your systems, including the immune one, are still in the middle of working properly again."

Jeremiah kept his hand on Kara's head, while Eliza grabbed her hand with her right one and passed her left arm over Alex's shoulders. After many years, they were finally together. Kara cried not only because they were united once more, but because she was happy Alex could have both of her parents in her life; something she was never going to be able to have.

"Thank you… for having me in."

"Oh no, Kara… you're not gonna make me cry again." Said Alex breathing in and out to hold emotions.

Their parents laughed.

"You're a Danvers, Kara. Always will be." Jeremiah kissed her forehead.

"How's… everyone? I-I know…" Her will was not as strong as she thought it was, and her body was now taking control of the situation, making it hard for her to keep talking. "…What he did t-to you…"

Jeremiah saw her eyes were on his. "Don't force yourself too much, Kara. You need to rest… And don't worry, I'm fine. I really am." He then looked at Alex. "And you should go to bed too, young lady."

"Ok, dad… I think we're gonna have an adjusting period to reinforce the fact that Kara and I are not little girls anymore." Alex pointed out with her index finger.

"Really? And who spent the whole night hugging her little sister?"

"That was different." Alex said in her defense.

"You'll always be my little girls." Her foster dad's voice was lowering and the Kryptonian smiled as sleep took her in.

She had her family back.

…

_Why was everything so cold? Her body was not responding. Each of her muscles was weak. Air was painful. What was happening? Those sensations; she didn't want them. No more. Her body couldn't make a thing. Her eyes opened only to see a shiny green light on her. "Kryptonite emitters." Life was being taken out of her. Many times she considered the risk of dying during combat… but dying like a lab rat? That was shameful and sad._

_The main door was opened, Modric came in with Reus and a guard; this last one pushing a bed with someone covered by a sheet._

_"My dear Kara. You missed me? I must say I am… very disappointed… of you. You just killed her."_

_The doctor signed his guard and the sheet was removed to expose Alex's lifeless body._

_She took every strength left to scream. It was hard for her voice to come out. "No… No! Alex!"_

"Alex! Alex!"

"Kara?" The agent was seated on her bed talking with Hank, but as soon as she saw her sister screaming and shaking her body, she jumped out of bed, stumbling from the sudden effort on her legs, but she didn't care. Her adrenaline helped her to keep on balance and ran to her sister. "Hey! Kara!" She placed both hands on the Kryptonian's shoulders to calm her down. Hank rushed to Kara too, grabbing both of her legs to keep them in place. Kara's body couldn't deal hard movement yet. "Wake up! I'm here!

"Kara!" Hank backed Alex.

"It's ok, Kara…" The girl on the bed opened her eyes, panting and full of terror. "Hey… I'm here."

Kara saw Alex standing next to her, and surprisingly seated to tackle Alex in a hug.

"Are you ok?" But Kara was crying now. "I'm here, Kara… you're safe, we both are."

"Modric… I-I killed you…."

This was not the first time Kara was as scared as that. Many nights after landing on Earth she would wake up in the middle of the night after nightmares about Krypton's destruction. However, this was another shocking experience; although Alex was not surprised, considering what Kara went through, she was shocked. It had been many years since that kind of nightmares… but not for Kara, because she was still as scared as that little girl.

Alex's hug tightened a bit when she felt Kara's body completely lean on hers. It had definitely been an adrenaline act, because now that weak body was facing the consequences.

"Kara…" She pulled back, still holding her sister. "I am here, I am alive; so do you."

Kara's hand was trembling, but she took the oxygen mask off her face.

"Wait… you shouldn't do that…"

"It's… fine."

Hank handed the tissues box to her and left the room to give them some space. Kara took one to clean her face and nose. Her movements were dumb, each was taken lots of energy from her, but she had to be able to deal with herself, and not to be a burden. Alex was also recovering; her sister looked tired and pale.

"I'm sorry."

"What? For what?"

"I made you go out of bed."

"You don't need to apologize for that." Alex noticed that, since Kara woke up, she didn't look at her in the eyes. Shame? Guilt perhaps? "Bullshit." Alex took Kara's chin to lift her face, but the Kryptonian evaded her gaze. "Kara, I know what you are trying to do… look at me." But Kara wouldn't do it. "Kara, look at me." She changed her tone to a commanding one that made those sad blue eyes focus on her.

"I…"

"Kara…" She said softly "It's in the past. We are safe. We've gone through this before. Please don't push me back… If you do that…" Her little sister cut her by wrapping her arms around her again.

"I'm sorry, I was just… so scared."

"I know. I was truly scared too… You were dying, and I couldn't… You died in my arms and I…" Kara's arms added a bit pressure, making Alex realize her sister was putting all she could on that hug.

"I thought I-I lost you too… when they took you away."

They stayed like that for a while.

No thinking, just hugging.

"Gosh… you made me cry again, Kara." She made fun of herself between sobs. "Do you have any idea of how much I've cried in these past weeks?"

"Sorry for that too…"

"You're the worst, sis…"

Kara felt Alex's body shook in her arms. In a quick move, her older sister pulled back and went straight to a trash bucket to throw up. When she finished and cleaned herself a bit, Kara was still seated, her face full of concern.

"Not pregnant, I swear." Alex lifted both her hands as an innocence gesture. But the joke didn't change Kara's face. "Just secondary effects, Kara. It's less often as time passes by."

Kara looked down again.

"Hey… none of what happened is your fault."

"What if Modric comes back?"

Frozen water fell on Alex. Even after forgiving herself, after forgiving Modric, and also thanking him for helping her save her sister; those events were recent in her heart. She was not ready to talk about it; not in her condition, not in Kara's condition.

"He won't, I promise." She gave her sister the best smile she could. "You're looking far better than yesterday."

"Wait, yesterday?" Asked Kara, and deep inside, Alex thanked her strategy to change the subject of the conversation worked.

"Yes. Mom and dad were here yesterday. You fell asleep until now."

"And what time is it?"

"Ehmm…" Alex took a look at her phone. "It's just past 5 in the afternoon."

"What? An how is it that I'm not hungry?"

"Because we're feeding you with plenty of stuff." Alex pointed to the bags hanging from a stand. "You're digestive system is still healing." She seated on Kara's bed, right next to her. "Hank was telling me that… tonight, mom and dad need to make another check on my body, to see how things are progressing. I don't want to leave you alone for much time."

"We're at the DEO, Alex. We're never alone. I'll be fine by myself." Kara leaned her head on Alex's shoulder.

"I guess I will have to decline your prince's appointment." She sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"Winn, Cat Grant, James… all of them want to come and visit you."

"Miss Grant? But…" Kara seated back to look at her sister.

"Yes, she knows. Found out by herself… I think she made a mistake on her career… she would nail it as a private investigator."

Kara looked worried.

"It'll be fine, Kara." She reassured her. "So, James said he wanted to come today, as long as you were ok with that; you can even move better and all of that now… but if you want to stay alone in here…"

"No, no, it's fine. He can come." Alex melted when she saw Kara blushing. "But I look all messed up."

"Well… mom and Hamilton washed you while you were deeply sleeping." And now Kara's blushing was because of embarrassment. "You look fine." She blinked an eye to Kara.

…

After a long day at work, James entered Kara's room until past 8 pm.

The first thing he did was to hug her. Although Kara knew she was far stronger than him, there was something about his arms… she simply felt loved and protected. James could look intimidating, but underneath that tall figure, he was that excited boy holding his camera, capturing the world with his eyes. They had over two hours talking. James telling her the whole rescue mission story. Kara was truly amazed to know Max helped and developed a serum to neutralize kryptonite effects; and she felt how much people loved her when she found out about each person's role. Winn definitely kicked Cadmus's butt!

James also spoke about Cadmus being exposed. Letting her know about Cat's speech, explaining to her how her boss found out about her true identity; the chaos after that information went public; people's support for Supergirl; Superman's speech. It was a very long talk, and a very interesting one.

"All of that in these past weeks? Wow…"

"Yes." James smiled at her. "Supergirl is loved by everyone. Should I be jealous?"

Kara laughed. She was seated, and tapped the space on her side, inviting James to seat next to her; which he did without hesitating, passing a protective arm around Kara's shoulders.

"No, no need of jealousy." She leaned on him.

"I know…" He leaned back. "You have no idea of how worried I was. I know it is not something you wanna talk about; but if you need to, you know I'm here for you. I love you, and I mean it.

"Thank you. I love you too."

"I am so proud of you Kara. I always have, and I'll always be." He hugged her entirely by passing his other arm around her. "I can stay here if you need me to; I have no problem at all."

"No. You gotta go to work, and I don't wanna make you come this far every night"

"I could ask for my vacation days."

"Sounds tempting, but no. You don't have to do it. I'll be fine. Everyone is taking care of me." Kara placed her hand on James's cheek. "It's almost 11 pm now, you have to drive home. You should go and get some rest for tomorrow."

"I can stay longer." Kara knew he was tired; he was just being kind, she truly admired that.

"Don't worry, I'll be ok." She smiled, but the smile was interrupted when he kissed her. It was careful and soft, and Kara indeed realized how much she had missed that. The kissed deepened but soon it was hard to breath and kiss at the same time.

James pulled back smiling at her.

"Wait, wait, wait Supergirl… There's no rush. You have to recover, first. Then… I hope you get ready for my kisses." He flirted, feeling happy when Kara blushed.

James stood up and hugged her one more time. He helped Kara lay down in bed, placing a sheet on her.

"Should I call someone? Is there anything I can bring or do for you, before I go?

"Kiss me again?" And he gave her another soft kiss right before exiting the room.

…

James walked through the halls of the DEO, saying 'good night' to all of those who were familiar to him after the mission.

He passed the main operations area and went straight to the main entrance. Some other guards said 'good night', and when he was getting close to the exiting door, a DEO agent captured his attention. He passed walking next to him, and he recognized him from somewhere, but not completely.

All of them were DEO agents, of course that one was gonna be familiar to him too. He shrugged and kept walking… but he was feeling uncomfortable.

_"Guess I'm really tired…"_

…

Kara could listen the Beep sound of her vitals lowering as she started to fall asleep. Her super hearing was almost fully recovered, every sound was clearer now. Her strength was starting to come back, she wasn't able to walk yet, but at least she could move some parts of her body. As for heat vision, her freezing breath, and the rest of her power… it was going to take maybe longer than usual; those used to take more energy from her. Anyway, she was recovering, she had her family; thanks to James, she knew how things happened, and she felt loved by all of those who worked to help to rescue her and Alex.

The _Beep_ sound was lower now. She was tired, her body needed to rest. Her breathing was better now; it helped her to relax faster.

_Beep_

_Beep_

_Beep_

She heard the door opening.

_"Alex is back…"_

But those steps…

She knew them, but they…

Something inside of her told her to be in alert… it was fear…

Those steps…

Maybe she was starting to have a nightmare again.

But then the halo of light from the solar bed, filtering through her closed eyelids, was covered with something or… someone.

That smell…

There was someone standing almost on her.

She was conscious. She was awake.

_"It's not a nightmare."_

She opened her eyes; terror invaded her soul.

Reus was on her. There was hate in those eyes.

"You killed Doctor Modric…"

TBC…


	12. Chapter 12

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 12

...

"What does that mean?" Asked Hank.

"It means Alex's body is embracing new cells… and what comes with that." Explained Jeremiah while taking off his gloves. "Just like my body did."

"Secondary effects might continue by an undefined time, Alex." Eliza gave her daughter a glass of water. "That will depend on many factors; because now your body is sensible to our sun's light; but not exactly like Kara's… since you didn't completed the treatment. Although, that was something good. Your body wouldn't have been able to take more of Kara's cells. The combination of a Kryptonian body versus a human body, which was designed under requirements from mother nature, our planet's nature; you wouldn't be here if a third dose had been injected. Modric considered a body composition, but not its environment, and each planet has its own living conditions; you know what I mean, sweetheart… on Earth we talk about human resistance to pressure levels, we breath oxygen, elements like iron, potassium, everything that's part of our body; our body is designed for surveillance on this planet. We can adapt, of course. It's a matter of evolution, but those years of evolution were being injected by Modric in those what?... five or ten doses? Human body is not ready to endure all of the chemical implications in just five or ten shots… evolution takes thousands of years. That's the reason why your body was shocked, due to the rush of changes inside it."

"Regarding your sister's powers; super hearing, super strength, x-ray vision, healing; those are the basic ones, part of her composition, the ones that don't need much of her energy, that is probably the reason why you got the first two; but don't be surprised if suddenly your eyes have access to x-ray vision or you heal faster with the sun, now those are part of your composition too… In what concerns to heat vision, flying or her freezing breath; those are external, they don't only are inside Kara's body, they are a stronger reaction to our environment, because there are other factors involved, like gravity resistance for example… they require much more energy, that is why Kara can blow up her powers after too much use of any of those."

"So super hearing and strength so far?" Alex asked.

"And probably x-ray vision and healing too… not exactly in the way Kara's powers work, but they would certainly be somewhere in between a human capabilities and a Kryptonian. It is kind of what happened with my body… I wish I could have all of Knoxes brain activity, but my body found a bridge for both species in order to survive, and here I am."

…

He was there. How was it possible?

Out of nowhere, Reus took out a knife, bringing immediate weakness to her body. Even under sunlight from emitters, the green blade had its own shine.

She was about to push the communicator button, but the doctor grabbed her neck not letting her voice come out; he lifted the knife pointing it down to her. Kara was still weak and the presence of kryptonite was worsening things. With one hand she grabbed the hand on her neck and with the other one she stopped the hand holding the knife. She tried to pushed him away from her but every strength regained in the last couple of days disappeared because of kryptonite exposure; anyhow, what was left of energy worked a bit to push him back, but he didn't let her go and dragged her out of bet with him.

Both fell hard on the floor throwing the stand and its bags next to the bed. Kara's body complaint with huge pain. She couldn't stand up yet. Reus stood up and grabbed her neck again only to lift her a bit and then slam her against the floor. Her head hit the ground and her vision blackened for a second.

…

"Well… that's not that bad." Alex smiled. "I actually like the idea, I don't mind secondary effects…" She stopped talking because she heard something crashed on the floor.

Hank also turned his head towards the direction where the sound came from.

"What's going on?" Asked Eliza.

…

Without letting her neck go, Reus captured her body between his legs and lifted the knife again. His hand went down attempting to stab Kara's heart, but she stopped him, catching his wrist with her two hands right before the knife reached its destination.

She was not strong enough.

The knife was getting closer, just a couple inches away from her chest.

Energy was abandoning her as the blade approached.

He was stronger now.

His eyes… for the first time Kara noticed his eyes were as green as Modric's.

Were they related?

The blade was so close now. She was not going to make it, she wasn't able to push him back again.

Kara changed her mind in a fraction of a second. Pushing up was not going to work, instead, she pushed to her left, and the blade sank in her left shoulder.

The excruciating pain completely finished all of her energy.

…

"Something is wrong…" Said Alex.

The DEO's loudly emergency alarm surrounded them.

"Kara…" Alex stood up from bed and ran to her sister's room as fast as she could. Hank and her parents following her.

…

James knew he couldn't go home feeling anxiety. He went back and confirmed his bad feeling; he arrived Kara's room right when the alarm sounded. Someone was with Kara… no, someone was on Kara and he saw when a green knife was used to stabbed her.

"Kara!" He went straight to whoever that was on her, tackling him away from her. Rolling alongside someone else's body.

It was a man, and he tried to get away from him, but James punched him right on the face. The intruder tried to fight back, but James punched him again.

…

Hank arrived first; the room was lighted by the emitters, but Kara's blood was contrasting with everything around. Alex, Eliza, Jeremiah and two other agents arrived.

As Eliza and Jeremiah kneeled next to a barely conscious Kara, Alex and Hank rushed to help James.

"She… killed Doctor Modric." James was forcing with Reus. "My uncle… She killed him!"

"No!" Alex kicked Reus away from James. "I did." She said. "I killed him."

From the other side of the room, Reus heard her words, and immediately pulled a gun out of his pocket. He was about to shoot her, and Alex's new super hearing allowed her to listen how one of the DEO agents had charged his gun to shoot Reus. She was going to submit Modric's assistant, but J'onn caught him first.

"Wait!" She turned to the DEO agent. "Hold back. He's going nowhere."

"Keller! Handcuffs!" Said Hank while holding Reus.

Kara heard many voices around her. Again, she could not move. That poisonous blade was polluting her whole body, causing unbearable pain.

"Kara, sweetie!" That was her foster mother's voice. "Stay with me! She's bleeding too much… Alex! Bring a gauze!"

"I need to take the knife out." Said Jeremiah. "Kara, can you hear me?"

Her body was shivering, breathless, and her forehead was covered in sweat; but somehow, she nodded.

Alex kneeled next to Kara and handed a bunch of gauzes to Eliza.

"I'm gonna take the blade out, Kara." Jeremiah said.

"I'm gonna kill you, Alexandra Danvers! I'll kill you!" Yelled Reus as he was being dragged out of the room.

Her sister was the only thing important to her. Eliza and her got ready for the amount of blood that was going to come out when the knife was taken out. It happened precisely like that. Jeremiah was quick, but Kara cried out, almost passing out because of the radioactive mineral sliding on her skin. Bloody was a short word. Kara's systems were not ready yet, no enough cells to stop the bleeding as it was supposed to work.

Kara felt the warm liquid spreading through the fabric, the skin of her entire shoulder, and part of her chest. She felt her foster mom and sister's hands on the wound; the pain from that pressure finally made her consciousness go black.

…

"How the heck did this happened?!" Hank was truly mad at the whole operational headquarters.

The security team was in the meeting room. All of them with heads down. Director Henshaw did not get pissed very often, but when he did, anyone would understand why he was the boss. Alex was now wearing her uniform; she got tired easily and obviously she was not ready for missions yet, but she had to be in that meeting because it was her sister's safety that was put on risk and… it was at the DEO! Right on their noses! Besides, she was Hank's right hand, and even when her boss told her to go to rest, she declined that; she needed to be there.

Kara was never alone now. Guards were literally outside her room all time. Jeremiah and Eliza were exchanging roles to spend time with the Kryptonian. Alex was extremely pissed off with the team, with Reus; but also angry with herself, because of having been so careless last night. After all of the progress Kara had achieved, she was pale again, weak, in pain, injured. _"Damn it!"_ Fortunately they still had a couple doses of Max's serum and they instantly used one on Kara. There was no permanent or vital damage; nevertheless, since her body had barely recovered when Reus attacked her, her wound would occasionally bleed or she would have brief wake up episodes after nightmares only to face pain. She was suffering both in her dreams and awake. Why and how was this happening? Alex blamed herself for having killed Modric, thus making Reus attempt against her sister. _"There are consequences."_ That's what Hank said, she was clearly facing them now, but at what cost? Kara was that cost. After getting those powers, she still felt useless. Her little sister was in a delicate medical condition because she wasn't there when she needed her the most.

"What happened?! Is this for what you're working for? Do you have any idea of what could have happened?!" Hank punched the table with his fist. "Since when we're not able to protect our own?! And worse, in our territory?! What kind of soldier let the enemy in?! If it wasn't because of the help from someone, who's not even from the DEO, we would've lost one of us. I want an explanation people, and I want it now!"

"He had access, just as any of us, Sir." The team started to speak.

"He works for the government too; all of them can be granted access to our facility, Sir."

"It is my duty to be the eyes inside our headquarters, Sir. When I noticed that agent going into Supergirl's room it seemed out of place. When the intruder attempted against her, I activated the alarm."

…

"And how is she?" Winn and James were at their operations room in CATCO.

"She's stable now. Her body is healing again." James looked exhausted.

"But wasn't the DEO the safest place she could be?"

James eyebrows went up while nodding. His phone made him jump a bit, it was Cat Grant.

_"So James… when will I be permitted to visit Keira?"_

…

It took two days for Kara to completely wake up and when she did, a bunch of people was ready for her; changing her clothes, cleaning her, changing gauzes. She noticed guards in her door. Too crowded, to many of them, moving in every direction; she got annoyed for that, and after a complete day of recovery, she was not in lethal danger anymore; she was finally leave in peace; healing, slowly, but healing once more. Only close people to her were coming.

On the fourth night after the attack Kara woke up, she saw her cousin seated next to her bed; he was wearing glasses… not in his Superman suit, but just as Clark Kent.

"Hey…" She whispered.

"Hey." He placed his hand on hers. "You seriously are made of steel, Kara."

Kara smirked and her face changed into a grumpy one when pain came.

"Sorry…"

"Don't be." She turned her head to look at him. "I'm tired of everyone looking at me a-as a broken doll. I mean, I am kind of broken…" She exhaled. "Man, I'm so beaten." She laughed again. "Hurts a lot… but I'll survive."

"I should've stayed here a bit longer."

"No, people needs you out there."

"Family goes first."

"N-not for us, Clark."

"Yeah…" he sighed. "I guess you're right."

They paused for a while.

Kara had barely seen his cousin as Clark Kent before, but looking at him like that was helpful, it made her feel like in Krypton. No super powers, no capes; just talking with family.

"I'm scared, Kal-El."

There were only two persons in her life to which she could totally open; who which she could be weak, sad, worried… and those were her cousin and Alex; but she was sad, because her sister was not talking to her like before. Alex didn't look her in the eyes, she faked smiles, stopped making jokes; she was behaving like Agent Danvers, the hard faced scientist, checking on her vitals, helping her with the healing process… but everything Kara needed was her sister, just Alex. She was in the same place she was, but still 'them' didn't exist since Reus. She missed her. The only person who she would talk to was intentionally staying away from her; therefore, she was deeply thankful Kal-El was there.

"I trust my team… but that night…" Her voice broke. "I don't blame them…"

"Kara…" Clark got closer to her bed and grabbed her hand with both his hands. "You have the right to be scared, or mad at them. You're not evil if you're thinking _'I thought they were going to protect me.'_ Believe me, they are thinking the same way towards you; they know they were supposed to protect you, you were leaning on them for that; they are taking all of that heavy regret because they failed. Because they know how careless they were. But no one could know something like that would happen."

"I know." She gulped to hold back tears. "I'm just… also mad at myself, because I'm being selfish thinking only about me, when everyone was in danger… It's the DEO, even I would not expect what happened that night. It's no one's fault."

"All of them are doing the best they can to help us. We are indeed lucky to have found a home here on Earth."

"Yes. We are." She squeezed his hands. "How are Jonathan and Martha?"

"They're fine, concerned about you too; but they know you're recovering now, and they fully trust your parents and Alex for that… I trust them with my life, too."

"I'm worried for their safety, Clark. I-I always am. I'm also worried for my friends lives for having been part of the intrusion into Cadmus; worried for Miss Grant for uncovering Cadmus; worried about you because you're my family… it's the government, they knew everything about me…"

"This isn't over yet, Kara. We both know that. It will probably never be… but that's why we need to be strong and stand up for those who can't. We chose to protect this planet and fight for justice… We have a family and friends here, we've learned compassion and love from them; and that's what we fight for, because we know what truly matters."

"You sound just like uncle Jor-El." She smiled and Clark smiled back.

"Really?" And there was her Kryptonian cousin, looking at her with hopeful eyes.

"We didn't meet very often… Only when either he visited us or us visited your parents. He was always so… confident about everything he said. Always full of hope and ideas." She got serious. "I still don't understand how many people ignored him when he tried to warn everyone about Krypton collapsing… but I'm glad my dad believed him."

Clark pictured everything in his mind. "Even if only a few people believed him… I think my father died happy; those whose opinion he valued were the ones who did, those he needed to believe in him."

"Yes."

"Now, dear Kara Zor-El. Let's honor our family and help this planet as best as we can, just as they did with ours." He leaned to kiss her forehead. "I gotta go, I have job in the morning."

"Don't remind me that." Complaint Kara. "Can't even imagine what's expecting me in CATCO."

"Auch…" Said a compassionate Clark, while walking to the exit door. "Good luck with Miss Grant."

"You're mean, Kal-El." She spoke from the bed.

"No… I mean it, your boss is walking to your room now."

"What?!" Kara forgot she was in not good shape and tried to seat, but naturally, she failed and her body collapsed back to bed, burning and with sharping pain, specially her shoulder. _"But it's midnight already!"_

The door opened. Cat was wearing one of her fine dresses, heels, and the purse was hanging from her arm. The woman went through the door paying special attention to the guy exiting the room.

"Good night, Miss." Clark said politely, stepping faster to avoid Cat's analytical glance.

"Mhmm… good night."

Kara heard those familiar heel steps, and her perfume invaded her nose.

"Keira?"

"Miss Grant…" She turned her head to look at the woman. Pleading with her eyes. "P-please don't tell me I'm fired."

TBC…


	13. Chapter 13

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 13

...

"Oh wait…" Cat Grant stopped walking looking straight to the girl on the bed. "Am I talking with this shape shifter, chameleon, magician, or whatever… again?

"No, it's me, Miss Grant."

"Then what did we said about doggy eyes in my…?" Her eyes looked to another direction. "Right, we're not in my office."

The woman left her purse on a table.

"Do you mind if I sit down, Kiera?" Cat pointed to the empty chair where Clark used to be seated.

"N-no… please, go ahead."

"First of all. There's a bunch of things already on your desk waiting for you. We're making new improvements." Kara turned her head to the ceiling, not letting Cat to completely look at her stressed and worried face. "Secondly. None of that crap matters, Kara." And Kara was now facing her boss. "My apology for coming this late at night. I hardly found a moment to come… you can just sleep if you wish to, I only wanted to know if you were ok. But I can leave now."

Was that the Queen? Her boss? No… she wasn't. This was just Cat Grant; the mother, the friend, the human, the women that inspired her.

"No, please stay Miss Grant. I've been asleep most of the day."

Cat studied Kara's aspect. Without her glasses and her hair freely falling, it was obvious to see Supergirl; but not that 'super' at the moment. Her aspect was not a good one. Pale, thinner, hints of bruises on her face, tracks on her arms, wires on some parts of her body, and the stained gauzes on her left shoulder. There was no light coming from her, no joy, no spirit… just a weak and exhausted fragile girl on a bed. Of course she was not ok. _"No wonder why they don't have a mirror in the room. She would get depressed."_

"What a luxurious place this is. You even have a tanning bed." She joked to vanish Kara's discomfort. It worked because the girl smiled. _"There she is."_

"The sunlight helps me to heal."

"Then you're lucky. For the rest of us, it only exposes age facial lines."

Kara smiled again.

"But really, how do you feel, Kara?" Her voice was soft, but serious.

Cat Grant had something not everyone else had. Maybe her gaze, her presence, her voice, attitude… who knew? But she definitely had a talent to persuade someone to speak, even with just a few words. No wonder why she was who she was. Kara felt awkward imagining how she looked under those emitters, her stained clothes, her hair was probably a mess too. Intimidating or not, Cat was always trustful; awkwardness or not, she felt she could speak.

"I've felt better." She replied.

"I did not ask how have you felt before. I asked how do you feel? Now… And please be honest." Evading questions from her boss never worked.

Kara kept quite. That was an awkward moment.

"I've seen you almost everyday in the last two years, Kara. I know all of your faces."

Once again, Kara looked up. "Vulnerable." The mask was broken, letting emotional pain cover her face. "Useless. Weak. Tired and…" Alex came to her mind. "Ignored."

Cat's hand on hers brought her out of her thoughts and when she turned to look at her boss, she was really close to her. That was seriously the first time ever, both were holding hands; they didn't even shook hands when Kara was hired.

"We all have those moments, Kara."

Cat Grant feeling vulnerable, useless… being ignored? That was a hard one to believe. This was a side Kara had only seen that night while fixing things with Adam.

"Guess it is part of life." Cat shrugged. "Otherwise, how are we supposed to grow up and learn? We're never born with a 'How to live' manual." She showed a small smile full of pride. "It's never the circumstances; it's us and those who are there to help us through… and well, you have pretty much a whole city on your side; super powers or not, all of them would kick butts for their hero. They all miss you… and Carter does too. He's been asking me about you over and over again." She rolled her eyes.

There was something warm inside Kara's chest; the woman next to her was right.

"Once I had a chat with someone on the balcony, we talked about light, and from that conversation I learned that… if the hero's light is blacked, the light of those she saved will keep her standing, because it's a part of her too. Isn't it?"

Kara's tears were falling on the bed.

"So… vulnerable…ok; useless…nah; weak…ok; tired… obviously; ignored… you are not the center of the universe, dear. Sometimes people need some space." She changed her tone of voice. "And speaking of space; the new assistant spends most of the time in my office. Next time make sure to let them know I need my personal space. But lattes are good, that's fine I guess." Kara laughed this time.

"Thank you so much, Miss Grant." Kara's eyes were joyful again. "I mean it."

"Ok, we have to decide what to do with that."

"With what?"

"Kara calls me Miss Grant, Supergirl calls me Cat, so…"

"Can we keep it the same? I don't want things at job to change."

Of course Kara needed her life as a human. She would never be one, but she needed to feel as part of something. A place to belong.

"We're not at job now" The Queen looked at her with inquisitive eyes, and Kara knew that look enough to read the _"Repeat what you said before."_

"Thank you so much, Cat."

…

Kara got used to morning supervisions on her, and one of those days, Alex finished taking notes about her vitals progress. _"Good morning."_ Was everything she said before sticking to the monitor. Later, she said _"Your vitals are looking better."_ She was still doing it, still avoiding to look at her. But why was Alex behaving normally with others except with her? That was killing Kara, it'd been a week since the accident, and her sister had kept that cold attitude. She was tired of Agent Danvers; she wanted Alex, she needed Alex.

"How are you feeling?" Kara tried to start a conversation. "I mean… with the secondary effects and all of that."

Alex was giving her back to Kara, pretending to order some papers on the desk next to the monitor; nonetheless, she could feel Kara's gaze on her.

"Just headaches, and sometimes I'm cold; nothing serious."

"How are Eliza and Jeremiah?"

 _"Please don't do this, Kara."_ She mentally asked. Yes, Kara was trying to talk to her, but she couldn't, not yet; she wasn't ready. Looking at Kara was a reminder of her failure; she could not handle the guilt of watching her sister's body condition. She could not watch Kara without feeling sadness, impotence, anger, hate.

"They're fine. Mom will come to see you soon."

Silence again.

The only sounds were Kara's vitals Beeps, and Alex moving sheets between her fingers.

"Is it because you killed Modric?"

Papers stopped moving in her hands. Momentarily, she felt exposed, she felt like crystal clear. How did she know?

"In between voices, I heard you that night…" But Alex didn't turn around. "Please look at me, Alex." She begged. "Say something…"

"I… I don't wanna talk about it." No… she was not ready. She didn't want to mention a thing about Modric or Reus… neither of them. She couldn't. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet…

"You don't wanna talk to me at all." That tone of voice… that sad tone of voice… the only time she heard it, was back when she reproved her sister for exposing herself after saving that plane the night Supergirl emerged.

No… it all have gone wrong. She had hurt the last person she wanted to hurt, the one who did not deserve that; she realized she had hurt her sister in a way not even Modric could have. No… she needed to fix it. Whether she was ready or not, her own feelings didn't matter now. _"Fuck these feelings…"_. She needed it to fix it now.

She turned around quickly and was welcomed by the picture of her sister lying on her bed, looking up, wiping her wet eyes with the back of her arm.

"It's… just fine…" Kara mumbled while covering her eyes.

Of course it was not fine!

"Kar…"

"Morning girls!" Greeted Eliza. "Is everything ok?" She asked feeling the tension in the room.

"Alex said my vitals are looking better."

Kara had definitely mastered the art of avoiding a question with a truth. She was forcibly smiling at Eliza. It might have tricked her foster mom, but not Alex. She was not ok. 'Them' were not ok.

"I'm gonna change your gauze, sweetie." Eliza was starting to carefully lift some tape.

"I'll do it, mom." Said Alex, stepping to the bed. They needed to talk.

"Alex." Hank called her from the door. "I need you in the meetings room."

_"Not now J'onn…"_

"Go ahead, Alex. I got this." Said her mom.

Reluctantly, she went to the exit door but not before looking at her sister, who was not looking at her.

_"She's mad at me."_

…

Reus wouldn't stop looking at her. He was replying to anything Hank asked him, but his eyes were nailed on Alex. Jeremiah and Hank were uncomfortable at that, asking the doctor to look at them during the interrogation, but the man did not concede.

Those eyes; Alex was a hard one to intimidate, but those hateful eyes were frightening her. There were two guards behind Reus, three more behind Hank, Jeremiah and her, but still, Reus was scary.

"Did you really believe I am the only one, Director Henshaw?"

"I don't want to force you to look at me in the eyes, Doctor Reus." Warned Hank. "Who provided you access to this facility?"

Finally, Reus turned to look at him.

"There's nothing you can do to change what has been done."

"Answer the question." Commanded Jeremiah.

"Doctor Danvers, how have you been? Have you already went to the 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' show, with your knowledge capacity…"

"Enough!" In a single fast move, Hank grabbed Reus's coat. "Answer the question." He asked politely. Holding back the impulse to punch him.

"You don't know what you messed up with. Director Henshaw. There many 'important' people really pissed off."

Reus, that shy, always quiet assistant, was now a different person. A sick one. A cynical one.

"Get ready". He said under Hank's grab. Then he looked at Alex again. "Except you, Alexandra. You're mine; and there will be no Supergirl to help you."

…

"All access is restricted, Sir." Confirmed Vazquez in the controls room.

"I want eyes inside the DEO too. Every person in this facility will be supervised."

They had spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon on setting security protocols in their headquarters. Alex's headaches were not helping her focus.

"Why are your still here?" Jeremiah put a hand on her shoulder. "You should go to rest."

"Almost finish…"

"No, no, no." He took the gun from her hands and kept changing its pieces. "Go and get some sleep. You shouldn't be doing any activity yet, Alex. Your body is still dealing with changes."

"I…"

"Honey, I know you wanna be helpful, but we need you ready if anything happens. Kara needs you ready."

Kara. She still had to go and talk to her. To apologize with her. Was Kara gonna talk to her? She probably would, without red kryptonite, Kara would not be as cold she was. Her sister needed… The volume was too high.

She heard noises everywhere, all kind of noises. She covered her ears with her hands trying to avoid the voices, the sounds… She didn't even realize when she fell on her knees. It was too loud. TOO LOUD! It was not painful, but it was a shocking experience. _"Be quiet! Be quiet! Stop it! Please, stop!"_ Her mind took a trip to when Kara faced it for the first time at school, and anytime after that. How did a little girl made it through that? Alex never had schizophrenia, but this was far worse to what schizophrenic testimonials said it was. If one day she went deaf for some minutes after a grenade, these sounds were horrible, and she wished for a grenade or a bomb to explode near her to keep noises away.

"Alex…" She heard her dad. He was kneeled in front her. He was not screaming, which made him barely audible. "Focus on my voice, Alex."

"Dad…"

"I'm right here, honey. Don't be scared, it'll be over soon. Focus on my voice."

"It's too loud…" She gasped.

"Breath… Focus on my voice. It's just us in the room, just us… follow my voice."

"I can't…"

"Follow my voice, Alex. Count with me: one, two…"

"Three…"

"Four, five…"

The volume started to low.

"Five…"

"Six, seven, eight…"

It went lower.

"Nine…"

Then it was just her, and her father.

"Dad." She hugged him. She needed that hug so much. Her dad's arms where always comforting.

"I'm here. I'm here with you."

"That was… h-horrible."

"I know, Alex. But you'll be fine. We'll help you through it. Kara will help you the most."

Alex held him tighter.

"Things will be ok."

Alex nodded on her father's shoulder. "I have to go with Kara."

"Yes, go and get some rest, sweetheart."

…

At least the headache was gone. She had a whole glass of water and a chocolate bar to give her some energy. She needed it. Alex even practiced some lines of how to start her conversation with Kara to not make feel any of them uncomfortable with one another, but when she opened the door of the room, her plans faded.

Kara was lying on her bed but she had an oxygen mask again, and her breathing was labored.

"What happened?!" She rushed inside.

Eliza stood up from the chair to see her daughter closing the distance between them.

"It's a fever." Explained the doctor. "Her immune system is getting better now and fighting every possible bacteria or virus the kryptonite blade exposed her to."

When she took a closer look, Kara was sweating and the monitor indicated high temperature.

Eliza saw fear in her daughter's eyes and hugged her from behind. "She will be fine, Alex. It's just a fever." She tried to console her.

"No. She's not fine, mom."

"It is part of her recovery process; you know that, sweetheart."

"I'll stay with her…"

"It's ok, Alex, you should go and get some sleep. We'll take care of her."

"Then I'll sleep with her."

Her mother knew that look; it was waste of time trying to dissuade Alex from a decision she had already taken.

"Is it ok if I take the keys of your car to go to get you some clothes, and some for Kara too?"

"You can't go alone, mom."

"Your dad will go with me and we're directly in touch with J'onn J'onzz."

Alex thought about it for a moment.

"Ok, just be careful please, and call me if you need anything."

"Of course. I love you. Take care of your sister."

"I will, mom." They hugged and Eliza exited the room.

Alex didn't think too much about it, she took off her shoes and went into Kara's bed.

"Here we are again." She whispered to a sleeping Kara as she took a strand of hair out of her sister's forehead.

The warmth coming out from Kara's body was hot, really hot.

"I just had one of those loudly experiences. How did you manage to face them? They are horrible." She grabbed Kara's hot hand. Such a skinny and fragile hand.

But Kara didn't move, just kept struggling to breath.

"I'm so sorry, Kara." It was hard to keep holding it, it was heavy; she just let it come out. "I'm truly sorry. I'm sorry I stayed away… I'm here with you. I'm here. I'll always be."

TBC…


	14. Chapter 14

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 14

...

"…lex."

Her body was too tired. Her eyelids were heavy. _"No… not yet."_ That had been one of those nights in which she had finally slept properly. This time she never felt cold that made her wake up to grab something to cover her body. Too tired to wake up; she even felt like hitting puberty stage with all of the changes in her body, just wanting to stay in bed. That had been an annoying stage, but tonight was glorious… Not throwing up, no headaches, no loud sounds, no cold… No cold?

"Alex." A weak voice woke her up.

When her eyes opened, the first thing they saw were a pair of blue ones… but that was a painful look.

"Y-yes…" Her mind finished landing in reality. Alex's first reaction was to place her hand on the girl's forehead; it was burning, literally like the same temperature of a plate after being inside a microwave oven. Her ears could perceive her sister's fast heart beating "What happens? Kara?"

"Too hot…" Kara's face was covered in sweat. "…mitters."

Alex rushed out of the bed to take a towel from the table, and cleaned her face and body. She pushed the button of the communicator.

 _"Yes? Is there anything you need miss…"_ Hamilton's voice was on the other side.

"Doctor Hamilton! I need cold water or ice… and bring more towels please!"

_"On my way, Agent Danvers."_

"Water…" Mumbled Kara.

Alex started to remove the hospital gown. The Kryptonian didn't even had time to blush, the heat was so intense, her mind started to fly away from that room.

"Kara? Please stay awake…" Begged Alex while putting some underwear on her. "I need to move you a bit for this. Please let me know if pain is too much and I'll stop… Kara? Kara?!"

"Emitters…"

Alex's head turned in every direction. _"Too much sunlight… too hot."_ Was a good idea to turn them off? "Kara, I can't do that." She touched the girl's forehead and finally saw Kara was paying attention. "Please stay with me… stay awake." But Kara's eyes were dancing again, blinking to get away from sunlight. "I'm so sorry." She apologized in advance for what was coming, and slightly maneuvered Kara's body to finish putting underwear. Good thing was that Kara barely winced, and that felt like the best thing that could have happened to Alex in years.

Gosh, why was she so fragile? Her sister was a complete puppet in her arms. Kara had never been in this condition before; it was a spike in her heart. Touching her sister burned; not in a dangerous way, nevertheless, after prolonged contact, it leaved a red trace on her own skin.

Was this the real Supergirl?

Her scientist mind analyzed the monitor and checked over her vitals. Now she had a chance of a better look to Kara's full body; the gauze was barely stained, which meant the bleeding had stopped; bruises on her limbs were only shadows of what they were before; her navel was closed again, just still swollen; she was still pale and the shape of her ribs was very clear on her torso, but that was normal due to lack of food; apart from that… everything was better, sunlight was working; was it a good idea to turn emitters off?

"…mitters."

Nothing could help it, it was too much for her eyes. Alex ran to the control panel and turned the emitters off at the same time Hamilton rushed inside carrying bags of ice, towels, and two bottles of cold water.

"If we need some more, I can…"

"This will be enough." Alex immediately grabbed the ice. "Thank you. Can you place those on her legs please?"

"Kara, I'm gonna put some ice on you, ok?" There was no response; Kara just kept fighting to stay awake. No second thinking; Alex placed bags on both her shoulders, one on her torso and more on its sides; and Hamilton placed others under her legs.

"Miss, the emitters…"

"I turned them off. The heat was too intense." Alex took one of the bottles and threw the cold water on two towels. "Please, help me with this too." She handed one to Hamilton and pointed Kara's chest.

"Water…" It was only a whisper but that was very clear on Alex's ears. She was busy putting a wet towel on Kara's forehead. "Water." Her sister asked again.

Before she could move, Hamilton was already opening the other bottle of water and pouring some in a plastic glass. Alex carefully removed the oxygen mask from Kara's face; placed her arm on the back of her neck, and gently lifted her sister into a half sitting position. Her skin was burning at the touch but she ignored it when Hamilton gave her the glass.

"Kara… here's water. Can you drink?"

Doctor Hamilton went to the other side of the bed to support Alex's hold on Kara's body and allow the agent to help the girl to drink. The blonde was weak and her older sister helped her to lean her head backwards, then let the water slowly pour in her mouth. The first gulp was a struggle, making Alex stop; but that changed because the next time water touched her lips, Kara drank the liquid as if her life depended on it. For the first time in weeks, there was water filling her body.

The Kryptonian was extremely happy, she did an extra effort to push herself forward until a sitting position, and leaned on Alex's shoulders. That moment meant a lot to her.

Kara was optimistic, that was all that mattered. Alex didn't even know what to say, hence she just hugged her.

"Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with, Agent Danvers." Said a smiling Hamilton heading out of the room.

"Thank you, Hamilton." Alex smiled back. The door was closed.

"You're here…" Said Kara from her shoulder.

"Of course I'm here…"

"No… not the scientist. My sister is back…"

The lump in Alex's throat was still there and she only pressed a kiss in her sister's head.

"I'm so sorry, Kara." Her head was now leaning on Kara's. "I didn't mean to hurt you… I… it's just hard for me to talk about what happened. But I hurt you on the way of my personal grief…"

"I'm sorry too… I was selfish. You have your own life and problems, I'm sorry I pushed things on you… I'm really sorry I was pushing too much… You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to."

Alex noticed her skin was not burning anymore; actually, Kara's body was cooling down. According to the monitor, she still had a fever, but the ice seemed to be helping to balance her levels.

"The ice is helping."

"Yes… it is. And water was delicious."

Alex smirked. "Water has no taste, Kara."

"Not the scientist, please."

"Ok, ok… It's just me."

"I wanna hug you." And Alex felt a trembling arm surrounding her waist.

"Kara…" She was surprised. "Your moves… they're better!"

When Kara finally wrapped her with both arms it was nothing close to the strength of their usual hugs, but this time both could do it. Hands on her back kept trembling but her little sister wouldn't give up; she kept them in place.

"You're worried…" Kara's voice was soft. "Where are Eliza and Jeremiah?"

"They're out getting some clothes for us."

"What? But they shouldn't…"

"They're fine, they took my car and it has a tracker on it; plus dad's watch has a tracker too and they're in direct touch with J'onn; besides, they even have an emergency quote. _'We're ok'."_

"How is that an emergency quote?"

"Because neither of them say something like that. Dad usually says _'All clear'_ while mom always says _'Everything is fine'_ So, if any time J'onn gets a _'We're ok'_ then J'onn and a whole team goes after them." She paused a moment, being unsure about continuing. "After what happened a week ago, I think they're probably safer outside the DEO than inside it." Those words were heavy and Kara noticed the sorrow impregnated in them. Sorrow in her sister's heart.

"Alex…"

"No, it's fine, Kara… You have to know the whole story."

"You don't have to tell me anything, please don't feel force to…"

Alex pulled back to stare at Kara. "I need to talk about it with someone and well… from everyone else, no one has that super hearing you have… and I'm not talking about your powers." She smiled. "Let's just wait until you feel better and your temperature…"

"Can we go out?"

Alex didn't see that one coming.

"I'm sick of being surrounded by walls. Almost a month like that."

"I'm not sure it is a good idea, Kara…"

"But there are cameras everywhere around the DEO…"

"Even with cameras, Reus got in…" A shadow covered Alex's eyes.

"We know J'onn… I'm sure there's zero privacy inside the DEO now… and outside it."

"Well, you're right about that one…"

"Please Alex…" Kara begged and those childish eyes were there again. Alex would always give into them.

"Kara…" She warned.

"Please..." Kara's gaze went down. "Even if I can't fly yet, I just wanna feel some air.

"I don't think J'onn will agree with…"

"That's when you use your super agent techniques." Pointed Kara. Weak or not, Kara's spirit was emerging again and she felt proud of that.

"And who do you think taught me that?" She raised an eyebrow.

"A good teacher makes a better student, thus technically… you got this."

"But your temperature is still high."

"Then I take the ice with me. I don't mind if we literally just stay next to the entrance door. I just want to feel the air." Kara closed her eyes, picturing the scene in her mind.

"Ok…" Alex sighed, and the light in her sister's eyes encouraged her to get out of that room. "I'll see what I can do… there are no promises."

"You always say that, and anyway make your own way."

"Yeah… you're right about that one too." Alex felt pride.

"Next to every Supergirl, there's a super sister." That was a tickling sensation in Alex's heart, but she held emotions to not break into crying at the sweet comment.

"Now you're being cheesy."

"We're the cheesy queens… especially these past weeks."

"Mmm… in a daily 'hard face, cold attitude' soldier's life, that's a good…"

"And kicking villains."

"And kicking villains life." Agreed Alex. "Being cheesy is a good thing."

"I like that about us too."

"Aww… So… we'll need a wheelchair or so."

"No problem." Small, but even being a small smile in Kara's face, it was a beautiful thing to watch.

…

 _"All clear here."_ Said Jeremiah in Hank's ear.

"Good. It's getting late; should be already dark outside."

_"It's almost midnight. You have no idea of how much I'm enjoying being in the city. Many things had changed."_

_"Wait until you go to Midvale."_ Eliza's voice sounded far.

_"How are my girls, J'onn?"_

"Last time I checked on them, Kara was still facing fever and Alex was with her."

_"Is there anything you want us to bring for you? Alex asked me to bring you some Chocos."_

There was no response from Hank; Jeremiah assumed he was embarrassed.

_"Anyway, we'll be heading the DEO soon. We're at Kara's, Eliza is just finishing packing some stuff."_

_"Is everything ok over there?" Asked Eliza._

"Yes. I'm just concerned about things being calmed. We only had a couple suspects aliens to catch this week."

_"Let's hope that is a good thing. It will give everyone some time to heal."_

"I hope so. Gotta go check on something. Keep in touch."

_"Thank you J'onn. We will."_

J'onn was on his way to Kara's room; when he turned to the hallway that took to it his steps stopped at the sight of two girls silently sneaking out. One seated on a wheelchair wearing pants and a hoodie, and the other one in her uniform, pushing from behind.

 _"You got to be fucking kidding me."_ "What the heck do you think you're doing?!"

Alex sighed in resignation. There was no way they could pass through him.

"What are you two? A couple of teenagers sneaking out in the middle of the night?"

"Hank…" Tried to explain Alex.

"Yes, that's exactly what we're doing." Spoke Kara, making her boss and sister look in surprise at her after the tone of voice she had used. Her words were almost whispers and her look was still a bad one, but her eyes showed she was aiming to move forward.

"You are in no condition to be out of bed. Have you forgot what happened a week ago? You can't expose yourself into dangerous situations. I would expect your comprehension, and yours too, Agent Danvers." His gaze was hard on Alex. "You understand the situation better than any of us. Go back to your room; both of you."

"You have eyes everywhere in and outside the DEO, Hank." Said Kara. "I want to go outside. I'm tired of being inside walls. We'll be still in the DEO's area."

"There are no exceptions, Kara. I order you to go back to your room." He started to walk away from them.

"With all respect… boss. I won't."

"Excuse me?" Hank turned to look at them.

Alex stood in there watching the scene. Her sister was in a wheelchair speaking as loud as she could manage to; carrying bags of ice with her; sweating; breathless; trembling; but above that, she was determined. She felt proud of Kara.

Her voice softened. "Do not make me beg, J'onn. I truly wish to get out and catch some air."

"You are my responsibility, Kara. You are under my command, and I gave you a straight order."

Without any of them seeing it coming, Kara tried to stand up from the wheelchair; and she did only for a few seconds. Alex was already on her side when she lost balance and started to fell, but J'onn was faster and held her.

"You know how good flying feels. You know what air and open field means to us, J'onn."

"Kara…"

"It will be short, I promise. May both of us can have a moment for ourselves, out of walls? We need it. Trust us."

J'onn exhaled and supported her back on the wheelchair.

"You can't even stand up properly."

"I have your best soldier by my side."

Hank walked away from them. The sisters stayed there without getting what that meant.

"Guess that was a 'No'…" Kara sounded resigned; however, Hank came back.

"Take this with you." He handed earbuds to each. "And this…" He gave Alex a gun.

"Thank you." Kara smiled and Alex said her 'thank you' with a look at him.

"Make it short. Stay near gate 5." He warned them with his index finger and made himself clear.

"Yes, Sir." Replied Alex.

…

"Hey! Whoever that's outside! I need to speak with Director Henshaw!" Reus yelled from his cell.

No one came.

"Hey!" He tried again. And this time a guard came in the room where his cell was. "I need to speak with director Henshaw. Tell him I'm ready to speak."

…

"Is it ok in there?" Asked Alex after putting some ice on Kara's neck. "Your temperature is still high, are you sure you don't want to go back?" She had her hand on Kara's cheek.

"Just lay down, Alex." Smiled Kara. And finally they had a moment to be laying on the field, feeling the cool breeze, the nocturnal sky above their heads.

Gate 5 was the one right in the center of the nine entrances to the DEO. Hank had made sure they were right in the center in case anything happened; but none of them had time to waste worrying about things, because the sky was painted with stars.

"This is the part I like about being out of the city." Said Alex. "It reminds me the sky in Midvale."

Kara said nothing.

"I loved watching them with the telescope dad gave us on Christmas."

Kara kept being quiet; Alex thought she had fallen asleep… maybe something was wrong. She turned completely on her side to look at Kara; there where tears falling from both sides of the Kryptonian's head, down to the grass they were lying on; just silently crying.

Alex grabbed her hand and leaned her head on her shoulder; allowing her sister a moment.

"I… I really thought I was not gonna see them a-again. They're so beautiful." She gulped. "I was ready to join my parents."

"I know…" Whispered Alex. How long had her sister been holding back those words? Was it because of all of the people coming into her room to check on her? She had been screaming for a moment for herself inside her mind. Alex understood that, because both had been through the same experience. "I saw you there, Kara… I… I…" Alex broke too. "I though I lost you… because even for just seconds, I lost you."

"I… Alex, I… I…" Kara had never cried like that before. Not that Alex reminded, not even during the first month on Earth. Her sister's chest was moving up and down in sobs, not letting her speak, projecting the real impotence held in it.

"You have to take it out, Kara." She squeezed her hand. "It'll help you move on… help you sleep without nightmares… I'm here with you."

"I wanted them to stop… I-it was painful. The shocks, the gas… the incision, kryptonite… his… his hands on me… t-touching every part of me during his tests." Kara spoke with repulsion. That made Alex boil inside. That asshole had dared to touch her. The anger inside her was too much; she cried feeling her sister's pain. Feeling her sister's body trembling next to her. Fear was still in there. That had been the reason why there was fear in her eyes every time they were exposing her torso, her shoulder… she was frightened at anyone's touch on her body. No one could get out alive after doing something like that to her little sister; and that had been exactly how things had happened, because Modric was dead. "When I saw Reus on me, it all came back… and I thought… I though he was gonna…" She couldn't finish the sentence because she broke into more sobs. "I'm so sorry you had to go through it, too. When… when they brought you in… I wanted to kill them… When they took you away, I was so scared… so mad at myself for being useless. You didn't deserve that, they were not gonna touch you…" She tried to catch her breath. "D-did they… did they touch you too?" Asked Kara, her voice hopeless.

"No… they didn't. Just the shot." Alex felt Kara's body relaxed a bit.

No, no, no… Alex could not help but to picture Kara on that bed, to picture Modric's hands on her… every test… she wanted to throw up; to bring him back from the death and kill him over and over again. Her sweet sister's heart was tainted. Her kind, generous, brave and lovely Kara had been harmed in many ways. Then they let Reus go after her?! How could anyone get out alive and sane after an experience like that. It had to be due to Kara being an alien.

"When I saw you there…" She said to Kara. "I wanted to kill Modric too. So I did…" She sobbed. "I wasn't thinking. I wanted revenge for what he did to you; for what he did to many others. He needed to pay for that… but… That wasn't the way to fix things. I…"

Kara turned to her side too to face Alex and leaned her forehead on her older sister's without letting her hand go.

"I acted as cold hearted as he did… I regretted to have done that many times. I did not understand how I lost control like that. But I couldn't handle watching you dying… watching him punching you… grabbing your chin… I couldn't… I talked about some of it with J'onn, because he was there when I killed him; I thought I forgave myself, apologized to Modric for the way I handled things; I thought things were getting better… I was calmed because you were safe, I was making sure of protecting you but then Reus came in and… that was a consequence of my act. He attacking you was a consequence of my actions… I indirectly harmed you… then I stayed away and hurt your feelings… Kara…"

The Kryptonian placed her arm around Alex, caressing her back.

"We'll go together." She whispered. "We'll go through it together."

Alex nodded in her crying state.

"I need you to understand something, Alex. I… I appreciate everything you do for me… but you don't have to carry that weight on your shoulders. You were forced to take care of me… to look after me, and… to feel guilty if anything ever happened to me. It is unfair. You were imposed a role it was not yours to take, but you took responsibility anyway. You have no idea of how much I love and admire you; always strong, brave, selfless… I need my sister, just my sister… not a bodyguard. That heavy burden is not for you. Free yourself from me."

"You're my littler sister…"

"And you're my older sister… Sisters… and sisters take care of one another, both divide that responsibility.

"For everything that has happened to us… and between us… I'm so sorry, Kara."

"I'm truly sorry too, Alex." Kara kissed her forehead.

"I love you… I know we say that a lot, but it also means a lot. Every single time I say it… I mean it. Not because I was forced to feel it, or because I had to feel it… but because you simply make me really feel it, Kara."

…

"What is it that you want to say?" Asked Hank while stepping in backed with two guards.

Reus was in his cell, smiling at him with confidence.

"Thank you, for accepting my invitation." Said the man inside the cell.

Hank saw the reflection of both guards on the glass of Reus's cell; they were going after him from the back.

…

An alarm sounded. With their super hearing, both sisters separated noticing the sound from underground. They heard running steps not very far from them.

 _"Danvers!… away… ambush!"_ Hank's voice was cut in her earbuds.

"What was that?" Asked Kara.

Alex stoop up and made the wheelchair flat, taking a lying on the ground position with Kara, just in time to see soldiers breaking in the DEO through gates 1 and 9.

The agent took her phone to dial James. He was not picking up.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon.."

_"Hello? Alex…"_

"James!" She spoke low. "Your emergency device... call Superman! We're under attack!"

TBC…


	15. Chapter 15

Here's the new one! :D

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

Chapter 15

...

Hank went down when the first guard came after him. The second one tried to tackle him too, but he stretched his arm to take him out of balance. Both men were on the ground and J’onn J’onzz took the time to warn everyone on the other side of his communicator.

“Danvers!” He moved to his side when one of the guards stood up. “ Stay away…” The other guard attacked him again. “It’s an ambush!”

Reus kept watching from his cell, enjoying his first row seat. A guard pulled out a gun Hank didn’t recognize as theirs, and when he saw the red light about to come from it, her knew it was something he had never faced before. The laser went straight to him, but he used the second guard as shield and his death body fell, letting him see a melted hole in his stomach. A second shot was coming, but Hank shifted in his true self, moving fast enough to make the guard lose sight of him. J’onn reached him from the back and knocked him down.

The alarm was too loud but not loud enough to cover the sound of shooting outside the room. The DEO was being attacked. Hopefully, his agents were dealing with the problem successfully; he wanted to believe that. A small earbud was broken on the floor after his fight _“They heard me, they did…”_ Tried to convince himself.

Too many shots, too many sounds, some of the noises were guns he was not familiar with. This was bad; it was the first time he experienced something like that in his life as Hank Henshaw.

“Tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack… Time’s running Green Martian… What a mess you’ve caused out there.” Reus spoke with a cold voice, keeping his hands on the glass of the cell.

“What is this?!” He confronted him.

“I would never be scared of you, Martian. Only impressed…”

J’onn felt uncomfortable under his gaze. Was this the shy assistant he had seen in the lift while rescuing Alex and Kara? _“Alex! Kara!”_ They were far more important than a chat with Reus. The Martian turned to exit the room. He had to find them.

“Never mess with big fishes, Director Hank Henshaw; especially when you’re an alien...” J’onn heard the men’s voice on his back.

…

“Oh my God…” Eliza started to tremble.

The couple had heard Hank’s voice in the same moment the car’s engine turned on outside Kara’s. Were they under attack? The DEO? An ambush?

“The girls… Jeremiah…”

“I know, I know…” His eyes were wide open, trying to think about a way to help. He only had one gun. _“Get ready.”_ Had said Reus; of course the attack had to be from the government, or at least the corrupted side of it. How could him and Eliza help?

“We gotta find help… Superman.”

“Yes, I got his number when he left the DEO after bringing Kara when the rescue happened. I’ll call him right away.” He picked up his phone.

“We need to go there, Jeremiah… Or at least find a way to help…”

“We need weapons…” He was dialing. 

“Lord… Maxwell Lord. I’ve seen the building before. I know where it is.”

…

More soldiers were going in. All of them coming out of trucks, carrying unknown weapons.

“Only by land… no helicopters to avoid attention.” Alex was as flat as she could on the ground. Good thing they were on the top of the hill and had a better view of the situation.

“We gotta do something, Alex…”

“What? No, Kara… you can’t. None of us is in the best shape for this.”

“But we can’t just do nothing…”

“Listen to me, Kara. We need to get you somewhere safe, first.”

“No, I wanna help…”

“You’re in no position to say that.”

…

Many glass walls were broken. All type of colors were coming out of strange weapons. The intruders were wearing dark gray outfits. J’onn moved fast to push a pointing gun off his agents, the man holding it lost balance and more came on his help. A purple wave passed through him but did nothing; except his team kneeled down screaming and covering their ears. _“Sound waves…”_ He assumed. The enemy must have had some kind of protection against it, but not DEO’s soldiers. Where was it coming from? In between shots, he spotted the soldier holding the gun; in less than a second he got rid of the weapon and the man carrying it.

“Sir!” That was Vazquez. She threw a rifle in his direction.

More DEO agents shot back; men were going down on both sides. J’onn moved as fast as he could from one soldier to another; he was proud his team was covering his back. A particular sound reached his ears… it sounded dangerous… he knew that charging sound.

“Everyone down!” He yelled as the white laser light was released, taking some lives on its way. There was another sound, just like the last one. _“Two weapons…”_ He didn’t think, just launched himself between the light and his team. The laser hit him sending him back, breaking two glass walls until collapsing against a hard rock wall. The heat… _“Kara’s…”_ Was that Kara’s heat vision intensity? The power of the laser was stronger than the first time they faced it when rescuing Jeremiah. 

The shooting continued. DEO’s weapons were not as powerful as theirs, but good thing they were only humans carrying alien powers in their hands; not real aliens. Johnson approached him and held his hand to help him stand up.

“What’s your condition, Sir?!”

“I’m ok!” The Green Martian flew inside the building, ready to release his anger against those intruders.

…

Winn was already at James’s apartment, ready to help in any way he could.

“Remember when I used to work for the DEO; while Kara declined to work with them after Astra’s death?”

“Yes.”

“I got access to their servers, still have.” Winn took his laptop out and sat down on the table. “Maybe I can do something from here…”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know!” The guy shook his hands in front of his head in frustration. “Just let me think…”

“James!” Superman stood outside James’s window.

The photographer rushed to open it, letting the Man of Steel enter.

“What happens? I got a call from Jeremiah saying…”

“They’re attacking the DEO…”

“Got them!” Said Winn from the table, making James and Clark moved to him.

Winn’s laptop screen was divided in small frames, each from different cameras inside and outside the headquarters.

“Oh my God…” James was speechless at the view of lightings, motionless bodies spread on every corner. Kara’s room was opened, but no one could be seen inside it.

“They’re not in the room…” Winn zoomed in the image.

“I’m going now…” Superman started to go to the window.

“Wait!” James stopped him. “You can’t show yourself as Superman… you’re supposed to be neutral, not against the government. Take some of my clothes…” He ran to his bedroom.

“Ok, ok, ok… think about something Winn…” His own hands were tangled on the back of his head. “There are two emergency exists underground… That’s it!”

“What’s going on?” Asked Clark standing next to him to watch the screen again.

Winn turned his head to face him but immediately felt tiny next to the tall figure, finally realizing this was the first time he was this close to Superman.

James handed dark clothes to the Kryptonian, who removed the cape to put on the black pants and hoodie over his suit.

“There are two emergency exists underground. Soldiers are using the main entrances to invade the place; they have everything surrounded.” He pointed at the outside cameras. “I can block the main entrances from here, but…”

…

Maxwell was focused on some papers on his desk when Eliza and Jeremiah passed through his office door.

“Mr. and Mrs. Danvers, what do I own this honor?”

“The DEO is under attack.” Jeremiah went straight to the point.

“Pardon?” He started to stand up, taking the walking stick leaned on his desk to support his weight on it. He winced just a bit when he stepped on his injured leg, but his attention was on the couple. “What about Alex… and Supergirl, and the Martian?”

“They’re in there. It’s an ambush, Max.” Said Eliza in the middle of stress.

“We need any super weapon you have. Cadmus is attacking the DEO.”

“I don’t really have the best relationship with the DEO, but there’s some… are people in there for which I would help.” He thought about it for a moment before accepting. “Yes, ok… Follow me.”

After two levels down they entered a big room full of prototypes, monitors, desks, spread pieces on tables, wires; but Max kept walking straight to the corner at the bottom of it, to what seemed to be an individual room. The scientist passed the identification protocol on the control scanner and extended his arm to allow the couple to move forward.

“I do have these two…” He pointed to a pair of rifles on the wall. “They’re purple lasers composed of chemical reactions; perhaps not from other galaxies, but the heat is enough to melt iron and many other hard stuff… These others work based on electricity; this one…” He took a small gun. “Looks useless, but the actual frequency coming from it sends things flying away like a giant ventilator. This one… I made it after Supergirl’s freezing breath, it mimics it almost the same. These ones look like traditional cops guns, but the bullets have neurotransmisors, which make a wound feel far more painful and deathly than it really is; it won’t exactly kill someone if the wound is out of a lethal zone, but the victim wouldn’t even stand up because of pain. I have other lasers…”

“What if you combine…” Jeremiah took some of the weapons and started to modify its components with a hydrogen capsule from one of the other guns. His movements were precise and agile. Some pieces made a _crack_ under his hands.

“Wait Doctor Danvers… that could…”

“Trust me, I know what I am doing… Cadmus was all about weaponry, and my mind learns fast. Tell me something I can shoot to.” He finished the puzzle and followed Max’s hand to a monitor.

When the trigger was pulled, the monitor got frozen in less than a second; leaving Max’s eyebrows lifted.

“You would be incredibly useful in Lord Indus…”

“I’ll take it all.” Confirmed the scientist.

…

“Alex! Stop… you can’t…” Kara tried to resist her sister’s grip, dragging her into some trees away from the DEO entrances.

Alex realized the Kryptonian’s strength was better than before; Kara even took a few steps while trying to release from her. Her balance wasn’t exactly there yet, but adrenaline was helping her to stand up and take out strength from who knew where.

Their ears perceived the air being ripped apart and Alex had the time to push Kara down; but the shot scratched her left arm, making her cry in pain; letting a few blood drops escape from the wound. 

“Alex!”

“I’m fine, just a scratch… No!” But Kara was already standing up, going after the attacker with clumsy steps.

They had been found.

Some other soldier came from Kara’s side and took her down. No, Alex would not let anyone harm her sister again. She took out the gun Hank had gave her and shot the man on top of her sister. There were at least four other soldiers. One of them used a strange gun, which produced a force to send them both back, making them hit the ground and roll on it. The agent heard Kara’s groans at the fall, of course her body was not healed yet; and her anger was free to take down anyone she had to in order to protect her little sister. She shot one more time, making another body fall limp. _“Three to go…”_

…

“Oh shit!” Winn exclaimed. “No, no, no, no, no…” We had launched his hands to the keyboard, typing commands to stop whatever he was trying to stop.

“What?!” Asked James completely intrigued about his friend’s reaction. “What’s going on, Winn?”

“They’re trying to hack the DEO too… to release the prisoners. I have to implement containment to block theirs systems, and close all doors.”

“There’s no time to waste…” Clark closed his fists; walking towards the window.

“Wait! Take this one.” Winn gave him his earbud. “Keep it, good thing laptops have speakers included. Let me know when you’re there, I will grant you access to a specific door so you can go inside the DEO. Just let me know when you arrive; meanwhile, I will block things. No one goes in, no one goes out.”

The Man of Steel flew out of their sight.

…

Alex dodged a kick and for her surprise, when she punched back the man on his lower jaw, this one seemed like jumping off a trampoline because he lifted high from the ground and fell far from her. In previous combats, she would only make her opponent step backwards, but sending someone flying? Maybe she was ready to combats after all. A half smile was on her face, if this was her strength now, she was definitely going to have lots of fun. A third man came after her, shooting on his way, but she lowered herself to avoid bullets, stretching a leg to kick his ankles to make him fall too. Once the man had his face covered in dust, she heard Kara gasping. Her head turned into her direction, seeing the girl punching someone away from her. It was not her natural speed, but it had been an effective punch.

Kara lost her balance a bit after punching that soldier and as soon as she focused on her sister again, a couple of other soldiers grabbed Alex from the ground.

“Alex!” She feared the worst when a third one came to hold the agent by her back; she had to do something. Kara got aware of the sudden dose of adrenaline in her body, pain was still there, but Alex’s safety was her priority. She started to kind of run to the silhouettes submitting her older sister. She fell, but quickly stood up again, without taking her eyes off the intruders. On the other side, Alex simply pushed herself up pushing the three men off her personal space. Did Alex do that? _“Super strength…”_ However, another soldier was coming, pointing his gun at Alex, pulling the trigger. “No!” She yelled and her sight shone. Using the intense light coming from her eyes to make a hole in his chest, killing him instantly.

Fatigue overwhelmed her when the light stopped and she couldn’t help but cry at the burning sensation in her eyes. She covered them with her hands and felt her knees touch the ground. Her heat vision was there… or at least part of it. But it was painful and her body was making sure she could understand it was not the moment for powers yet.

When she opened her eyes, it was blurry first, but she saw Alex running in her direction and… a tiny blue sparkle coming from a distant rifle. The target was Alex…

…

The closer he got, the clearer sounds were. He felt weird flying without a cape, but air was not gonna be an obstacle. He had to arrive the DEO as soon as possible. His family and friends were there.

Clark kept flying at a medium altitude to give his super hearing a better chance to perceive things, focused on the DEO’s alarm sound, the shooting, things falling… in the middle of all of that noise, he heard a familiar voice… _“Jeremiah.”_

On the road, about four miles away from the DEO, he spotted a car going fast. He used his x-ray vision and saw Jeremiah driving the vehicle at full speed. Clark flew low until reaching the driver’s window, making the doctor jump a bit when suddenly there was someone flying next to him. 

After pulling over, he went out of the car and Clark was already expecting him.

“Superman!”

“I thought you were at the DEO with…

“Alex and Kara are there. I asked Eliza to stay at Lord Industries.”

“You’re heading the DEO, right?”

“Yes, got some weapons from Lord Industries.” He pointed a couple of black bags on the back seat.

“I’ll take them. You go back to safety.”

“My girls are there… I’m not leaving them.” Jeremiah was serious.

“Fine, then I’ll take us, and the weapons, there.”

…

Where were all of those soldiers coming from? They were too many and more and more DEO agents were being killed. Lights were going on and off. J’onn took that as an advantage to shape shift into multiple intruders as disguise. Lights off, lights on… he looked like an intruder attacking his own team. Some of the enemies noticed that and pointed at him. Lights off, lights on… and J’onn was someone else, but the enemies had taken one of their own down by mistake. They were being easily tricked. J’onn was literally passing fast between them, getting rid of one, two, shape shifting, three, four, then they were shooting themselves, shape shifting, five, they shot at themselves again, shape shifting, six, seven, eight; when he reached the next one, a painful wave made him slam against a wall. 

He tried to shape shift again, but it didn’t work. He was standing up but a sharp pain on his left thigh made him stay down.

“Wait, wait…” Said someone on his back.

No one was gonna stop him from flying, but apparently intruders knew his thinking because they shot him on his right shoulder and it was painful, really painful; those were not conventional bullets either.

J’onn moved forward but the pain in his thigh made him stop. Whoever that had attacked him, took the knife out of his flesh and placed it on his neck, threatening to slide the blade on this throat.

“Now…” 

That voice… _“Reus.”_

“Mognas wave. That’s why you can’t shape shift. They were shape shifters too, faster than you; we developed that lovely weapon to deal with shape shifters.”

J’onn was feeling exhausted, but why? Was it the bullet on his shoulder?

“As I said, thank you for accepting my invitation. You actually denied it the first time… well Supergirl stole it from you and sneaked in.”

“What… are you t-talking about?”

“Cadmus, of course.” The doctor used an ‘obviously’ tone of voice. “The laser was going after you, but Supergirl was the one to interfere and covered your escape with the team and Jeremiah Danvers… Not that we didn’t need a Kryptonian, it was indeed a nourishing experience for us and we even made huge improvements with human subjects when we took Alexandra. But you… the last son of Mars. You’re a hard one to find these days, and when Supergirl went crazy, you sacrificed your identity to help and revealed to the world; Doctor Modric and me knew we had a new one for our collection. Hank Henshaw exposing himself to protect Alexandra and Kara Danvers? They were not just co-workers for you; of course you were gonna join them to find Jeremiah… The difference between you and Kara is that you actually have no one left, thus what’s it matters if you die during the process. That mind reading thing you have, we’re still missing it… Your fighting team is in a mmm… weak state now. No better moment to deal with you, a walking death Kryptonian making the city go insane against the government, Jeremiah betrayed us, and… oh! That’s right, Alexandra Danvers’s life is mine to take…”

TBC…


	16. Chapter 16

LAST CHAPTER, THUS THE LONGER ONE! Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

CHAPTER 16

...

She couldn't tell when it happened, but her feet were not on the ground, she extended her arms trying to reach Alex, but the blue sparkle was not small now, it was dense and it was going after her sister. Her eyes were still adjusting to a clear view, but she was far… too far from her. That was not her speed, it simply wasn't. Suppressing her own panicked voice, she held onto hope… hope for a miracle to happen and get Alex out of the way; otherwise, her sister was going to be shot before she could reach her. Speed was not enough; she was not enough, _"No…"_

The blue light was so close to Alex.

"ALEX!" Her scream must have been heard all around the area. She blinked and her sister wasn't there anymore, the blue light replacing her, and Kara moved to one side just in time to avoid it.

Her body collapsed on the ground, although she had not eaten anything yet, she wanted to throw up; she was dizzy again. _"Did I fly? … Alex!"_ She lifted her body, struggling with each move, looking into every direction.

Someone was shooting the intruders; this person had used something that sent them all flying away.

"Kara!"

The Kryptonian followed that voice and Alex's arms were around her in a second.

"You're ok…" She returned the hug, and buried her face in her sister's neck. Alex was alive, she was fine. "You're here…"

"I'm here, I'm here with you." She pulled back to look at her. "Are you ok?"

"Yes, what happ…"

"Kara!" Clark was walking towards her.

"Kal-El?" Without his suit, she had it hard to recognize him under dark clothes. He lifted her up in a tight hug too.

"I was so worried…"

"I'm ok."

"You flew, Kara. Your powers are coming back, but your body is not ready yet, your heart…"

"I'm ready whenever I need to, Kal-El." She made herself clear about that statement.

"Max wasn't lying about this one." Jeremiah had a small gun on his hand, but put it back to embrace Alex.

"Max? Where's mom, dad?" She asked without letting her father go.

"She's at Lord Industries. Max gave us these." And Alex saw two bags on the ground.

"We gotta go help, Dad; J'onn and everyone…"

"Are you sure you can do this, honey?"

"I am going to help."

"That's not what I ask." Jeremiah looked at her face.

"Ok… I'm not sure, but I'm a soldier, dad. I will go and backup my team."

"You make me so proud of…"

"Careful!" Superman pushed both out of a white laser's reach. Another one came and hit his back, sending him far from others. "Is that…"

"Heat vision…" Said Kara in a low voice; a voice Clark and Alex heard.

"What?" Alex understood the situation. "The tests on Kara."

"Yes, they got heat vision from her." Confirmed Jeremiah.

"Kara, stop!" Clark was off the ground again, following her cousin, who had started to fly after the soldier carrying the weapon. The girl had no control against gravity and air wasn't helpful on her balance; however, she kept her body in a firm position.

Kal-El passed next to Kara and took the man down before her. The girl was not fast enough yet and when he turned to prevent her from falling, she was not there. A man's grunt got his ears and he saw Kara had took down the one who shot the first laser.

More soldiers were pointing at Kara; Clark flew in her help, but none of the soldiers made it to shoot in time, because some of them got frozen, some others were pushed back like flies, five more men shook under a purple light.

"This is amazing." Said the older sister; admiring the gun she was holding, after releasing that powerful purple lightning.

"Kal-El, look…" Said Kara a bit higher than him. He followed her gaze and got her point. "They're not going in anymore." Her mind thought about the worst scenario. "Does that mean that everyone inside was…" She panicked.

"No, it's fine, Kara." He spoke calmly as he wrapped his arm on Kara's waist to help her keep balanced in the air. "Winn is controlling the DEO's systems. He shot the doors as containment because Cadmus was starting to release prisoners.

"What?! We need to help everyone in…" Her head was spinning and if it wasn't because of Clark, gravity would have captured her.

"Hey, got you… let's get you down, you're not healed yet." He carried her in his arms while going down.

Jeremiah and Alex kept shooting. Without rocks or something to cover, facing the ground was the most effective way to avoid bullets.

"So Winn controls every entrance?!"

"Yes!" Replied Jeremiah above the noises.

"We'll need to pass them then, that's the only way to get in there, dad."

"Alex! She's bleeding again!" Yelled Clark, making the girl abandon her position to go after her sister.

She quickly examined her as best she could under the nocturnal sky. It was her shoulder; the knife wound had been opened again.

"Must have happened when we went thrown back and hit the ground." She concluded.

"Take care of her please, I'll go help Jeremiah." Clark took off.

Kara tried to release from Alex's hands, but dizziness made her stay in place. The Kryptonian perceived her cousin among all of the soldiers and above them. Heat vision, freeze breath; it was a good thing he was using dark clothes, there was no contrast between the night and the The Man of Steel, no one would be able to tell for sure if it was indeed Superman or Supergirl; at least not after they saw her flying and using heat vision. Additionally, the DEO also had extra-normal weapons, and the exchange of multiple bullets and colors was making superpowers or weapons hard to differentiate.

Jeremiah was also dealing with many others, Kara stopped thinking for a moment, only to admire the man's abilities during combat; he was absolutely badass on the field. No wonder where Alex got it from.

Pain pulled her out of her thinking. Alex was putting pressure on the wound.

"It's not that bad Kara, but I need you to lay still so blood slows down. If we ignore it, a blood loss will make you pass out, or get worse." Instructed her sister.

"I'll be fine, Alex… Go and help them. I'll reach you as soon as it stops."

"No, Kara. You've done enough tonight. This combat is not for you to face. You're not ready yet…"

"You know I can't…"

"No, stop! Listen to me…"

"Alex…"

"I won't put you in danger!" Alex lost patience.

"That decision is not yours to take!" Countered Kara.

"I don't wanna lose you! …Ok?" Her shoulders fell. "I just can't watch you being hurt… not again… I can't handle that, Kara."

Tension vanished between them.

"I can't watch you get hurt either, and you're bleeding too." Kara pointed at her arm. "We're both soldiers, Alex. We both chose to stand for others. Our team and friends need us down there. They are relying on us." She cupped Alex's teary face. "You can't decide for me, Alex. I know I'm not ready yet, neither are you… but we know each other better than anyone to understand that we'll keep fighting as long as we're awake." Frustration was on her sister's face; Kara knew Alex was aware of every word coming out of her mouth; it was just difficult to accept it. "I love you." She tangled her hand with hers. "We'll go together. Remember?"

"Always." Alex squeezed her hand and with the other one she held Kara's other hand on her cheek. "I love you too."

"Being cheesy in the middle of a fight, that's an out of this world upper level."

Alex laughed. "Well, after what has happened, I'm officially half out of this world too."

They got serious, knowing what they were about to do. They hugged, wishing to hug again in the future.

"I'm scared." Kara heard her say. Was Alex, her sister… trembling? "Last time I couldn't protect you from Reus."

"Alex." She said softly caressing her sister's hair. "I asked you to free yourself from me. None of what happens to me is your responsibility."

"I know that, it's just…"

"We're sisters." She kindly smiled. "Of course we can't ignore each other, and that's why I know I got your back, as much as you got mine."

Alex sighed. "Ok, let's do this then…" Her eyes were intense. "Please be careful."

"You too. I'll join you as soon as blood stops." Said Kara in her ear.

…

Everything was shaking, some rocks and dust started to fall on their heads. Reus released J'onn as he tried to keep on his feet. A loud growl came to his ears from the outside of the room; loud enough to be heard above the shooting and the emergency alarm.

J'onn knew that growl; he was leading the mission when they caught that Nuguxl. A refugee from Fort Rozz, imprisoned after killing over a thousand Kryptonians by strangling and eating them, as a snake after a mouse. Just as it happened with aliens from Krypton, that Nuguxl's strength had been improved.

There were cries outside.

"What's that?!" Asked Reus to his soldiers.

"The plan was releasing the prisoners, but an external source with a still unknown location stopped the process when it was starting. But seems like someone managed to take that fail in the system and escape, Sir."

"And who gave that order?!"

"The top council, Sir. We only followed orders. We were informed every entrance have been sealed too, but a counter attack is happening out there, Supergirl…"

"Supergirl? She's isn't here?!" He looked at J'onn but the Martian was exiting the room.

His left leg wouldn't let him walk properly and he flew instead. When he arrived the Main Operations room, his bleeding thigh and shoulder were minor problems. What once was an organized place, was now a mess of broken monitors, blinking lights, but the worst thing of that scene, were the bodies spread above desks or floor. Some DEO agents were covered with anything they found, the shooting between both sides kept going. J'onn J'onzz spotted someone familiar on the main desk.

"Vazquez?!" He approached the woman. She had a bullet wound under her ribcage.

"Sir… You need to go."

…

"This isn't good…" James was in front of the monitors, seated next to Winn.

The guys witnessed the combat, leaving them speechless at the sight of soldiers dying. When the Nuguxl escaped its cell, neither of them could watch it ripping bodies apart, devouring them… it was too much blood; Winn even threw up.

Those were many cameras installed everywhere inside and outside the DEO. Because of the weapons and their colorful lights, it looked like a concert, but a deadly one. It was difficult to focus on something due to movement everywhere. James recognized Supergirl's heat vision, then Superman taking Alex out of a laser's way. His main concern was Kara. He knew the girl wasn't all right. But she didn't stop and kept fighting. Clark, Alex, Kara, Jeremiah, each of them could be hardly seen on the external cameras due to the night.

Winn was the one who saw J'onn being attacked. And now they were focused on J'onn trying to help one of his agents in the Main Operations room. They wanted to help in some other way, but that wasn't possible; not if neither of them were trained to be in field.

_"_ _Winn!"_ Clark's voice came from the speakers. _"Gate 3, I need access."_

"Got it. And… Ok, done."

"Guys, there's a prisoner moving around in the DEO." Said James.

"J'onn is in the Main Operations Room. He's wounded."

_"_ _Got it."_

"How's Kara, Clark?"

_"_ _As stubborn as usual, James."_ The sentence was not very clear because the emergency alarm was louder, and the shooting noises were the live audio of the situation. The team had entered the DEO.

That wasn't the kind of answer James wanted, it said nothing about a physical condition, and he assumed it was a bad one if Clark had chose to talk about her attitude instead.

…

The Nuguxl's orange skin reflected the red light of the emergency alarm. Its long tail, and tall muscled figure made it look like an alternate version of The Hulk, except, it was bald. It was all the same for the alien, DEO agents, Cadmus soldiers; it didn't matter, the killing/eating was its goal. Soon, the only target was the alien. Both sides were working to contain the creature.

J'onn J'onzz called one of his agents to put pressure on Vazquez's wound. The Green Martian attacked the Nuguxl by the time this one had captured a Cadmus soldier. J'onn punched the beast, making it stepped backwards; then he punched it again, and again, and again. It was hard to keep up the fight when more people were shooting the alien, putting him in the middle of danger. Those lasers, bullets, waves, lightning, gas… all of them came from Cadmus's weapons because he didn't recognize them. Of course his team had stopped firing to avoid the risk of hurting him; but for Cadmus soldiers it was a 2x1 chance, and that's why DEO agents started to shoot the intruders one more time.

The Nuguxl punched J'onn on his right shoulder, increasing the pain coming from the bleeding wound. J'onn was lifted by the jaw, then slammed on the floor.

He was took weak, the blood loss had been enough for his body to give up… but he couldn't, his team was working to cover him. A Nuguxl was not going to take him down. He was thrown against a wall and he cried out when his left thigh caught the impact first. The alien took him quick before he could even start to stand up. J'onn found his body being wrapped by the prisoner, he tried to release himself, but it was useless. Someone shot a wave that send them flying across the area, but the beast did not let him go. His sight was turning black. Keeping consciousness seemed impossible, but something abruptly brought him back to reality; the Green Martian felt a couple of bones in his torso breaking and this time pain was unbearable. Everyone stopped shooting for a few seconds while listening that rending cry. It was heartbreaking.

…

After entering the DEO each of them started to attack intruders. Clark went after the ones with bigger weapons. Alex and Jeremiah handed guns to any DEO agent they saw while taking more enemies out of the game. Still weak and clumsy, Kara ignored her own pain to help in everyway she could. After four hallways, her superhearing got J'onn's voice; at that terrifying sound, she fled as fast as her body allowed her to.

…

"No!"

It was far, or maybe it was him who heard that voice far from where he was… but he knew its owner. He confirmed his thoughts; after seeing blonde hair, his body fell hard on the floor. Finally free of that painful grip.

Kara had put all of her strength into getting rid of whatever that was hurting her boss. She fell and rolled alongside that huge alien. Anger had taken control of her body, but her strength was not enough to beat someone of that magnitude; when she noticed her cousin entering the room, she made a last effort to throw the alien before it could attack her back. Right after that, she fell straight to the ground finally giving into exhaustion, trying to catch her breath.

Clark welcomed the beast with his fist. The punch went straight to its face, smashing whatever that was inside its head; leaving only a limp body on the floor.

Something in his right arm burned and The Man of Steel recognized the pain as kryptonite; he covered behind a desk and pulled the green bullet out of his flesh.

Jeremiah helped DEO agents to fight back, and Alex rushed to J'onn's side.

Clark left his spot and joined Jeremiah and more agents. Max's weapons were surprisingly effective, and more and more enemies stopped being a thread.

…

"Is that a timer?" James pointed to one an object seen through one of the cameras.

"Crap!" Winn was on his keyboard.

"What? What happened?" Asked James.

"They couldn't hack, neither control the place, they're gonna fly it! They need to get out. Now!"

…

Alex gently lifted J'onn's head.

"J'onn?! J'onn, can you hear me?!"

The Green Martian focused on that kind voice. He felt nothing but deep respect towards that person. He fought his own body to stay awake; he wanted to see that person. If he was going to die, he needed to see something precious to him before joining his wife and daughters… yes, he had a couple of daughters on Earth too, and one of them was talking to him, caressing him. He needed to see her.

"J'onn… please."

"Alex." His eyes lazily opened.

"I'm here, Sir." And her weak smile warmed the Martians chest. "I need you to breath, stay with me, ok?"

J'onn J'onzz tried to sit up, but his torso forced him back to the ground. Alex's soft hands placed against his wounded shoulder.

"Please hang on…"

J'onn turned his head to watch the battle. It definitely was not a pleasant place to die, but at least he was going to die like a soldier in combat; that calmed him a bit; but that peaceful second vanished when he saw a familiar face away from them. Was he still alive? Struggling to keep focused, he saw Reus in the distance, pointing at Alex. _"Alexandra Danvers's life is mine to take…"_ That's what he had said.

"Al…" he grunted as his voice was cut off with a sharp pain.

"Shh… I got you. Stay still…"

"Alex!" He yelled. When the girl saw terror in his eyes, she knew something was wrong.

"Alex!" That was Jeremiah's voice.

Reus shot, and Alex heart it at her back. She wanted to turn around but someone pushed her to her side and blood splashed her cheek.

Jeremiah shot Reus and ran to his daughter, but someone was on her. J'onn was on her.

She stayed in shock for a few seconds. Everything had been so fast. J'onn was on her body and she felt blood wetting her uniform, but it wasn't hers.

"J'onn…"

"Alex!" Her father kneeled and carefully turned J'onn's body up. The bullet got his chest and this time, the Martian was barely breathing.

Someone was laughing. Reus got their attention and Alex fought with the impulse of going after him to kill him.

"Wait for the best p-part of Cadmus. This…" He spitted a strand of blood. "This is just starting. DNAliens will come…"

_"_ _Guys! They settled bombs! They're gonna fly the DEO!"_ Clark heard Winn's voice. _"There's an emergency exit on the room next to where you are. The one on your right! Get out!"_

"Bombs! We gotta go! Now!" Yelled Clark. He saw Kara's unconscious body facing the ground with an amount of blood circling her shoulder. Once the girl was in his arms, he rushed to take Vazquez, then next to Jeremiah, Alex and J'onn.

Alex carried J'onn without a problem thanks to her strength.

"I know where that exit is. J'onn showed me." Jeremiah took the lead to guide them. Followed by some DEO and Cadmus soldiers.

They made it out. Everyone running for their lives, away from the DEO area. It was almost a minute later when the ground exploded and everything collapsed, leaving a crater where the DEO once was.

After the deafening sound, Alex's voice was the first thing they all heard.

"J'onn?!" She had the Martian's face in her hands. "J'onn please…" She begged as tears were on the edge of her eyes. "I can listen to your heart, I know you're still here."

Clark was stopping Kara's bleeding shoulder but his attention was on the Green Martian. He heard someone charging a weapon and when his gaze placed on the Cadmus soldier carrying it, the man hesitated.

"We saved your life…" He said with a hard tone voice.

Reluctantly, the man nodded, stepped back and left the place, others following him.

_"_ _At least they still have some honor…"_

"J'onn?" Jeremiah was next to his body too. There was too much blood.

"I…" Spoke the Martian. His tired gaze looked at Alex, then at Jeremiah. "I've kept… my promise. Your girls are safe." Said to the man. Then he looked back at Alex with a weak smile, blinking one eye before closing both.

…

…

…

Was it a stage in her life? The month? The season? Whatever that it was, she didn't like it. Last time her sister was on a bed (still was), now her boss was on one too; being monitored every second. Her head hurt, but she was more concerned about analyzing progress rather than going to sleep. It was past 2 am but even if she lay on a bed, her brain wouldn't let her fall asleep.

She was in the middle of writing a sentence when the door was opened then closed at her back.

"For real, I'm not hungry or sleepy, mom."

"I could call you 'sweetheart' too, but I'm sure I would get punched in the face." She went out of her notes to look at the man standing behind her.

"Hey." She greeted Max.

The scientist walked to stand at J'onn's feet. Supporting his weight on the walking stick.

"How is he doing?" He asked, but regretted it immediately when a shadow covered Alex's face.

"Still unconscious. His wounds stopped bleeding; took a while to understand his physiology, but after treating many other species in Cadmus, dad found out the way his body works." She paused to gulp and contain her emotions to keep a strictly professional posture; even more considering it was Maxwell Lord she was talking to. "His ribs are healing too, but some internal organs were damaged when the bones ripped them. However, seems to be improving now." She took J'onn's hand. "It's better this way, if we wakes up now, he would be in too much pain."

"What about you?"

"I'm fine. Just came back after checking on Kara, she's sleeping now... Actually..." She felt a bit uncomfortable, her pride trying to stop her from talking, but she ignored it. "Thank you... For letting us borrow your facilities."

"Lord Industries headquarters are always available for you. I'm an arrogant but not a selfish man. Besides, the DEO is gone."

Apparently he was just spoiling things by saying exactly what he shouldn't.

"I mean, it will be built again..."

"You don't need to say anything, Max. It's ok."

"You perfectly know it isn't, Alex. None of what has happened is ok."

Alex sighed. The Martian was a pale green color, covered in gauzes; but Alex was only missing the gauzes because it was crystal clear to notice how devastated she was. Pale, low shoulders, that penetrating gaze was not there either.

"I'm worried about what will happen next. What Reus mentioned about DNAliens... I have the feeling Cadmus is much more worse than that; more threads to come."

"Yes, I have that same feeling." Max sighed. "But that's not everything that's worrying you."

Alex bit her lips and closed her eyes. She exhaled.

"I wish I could have done more for my team. Their families deserved to at least have a body to grief, but the explosion..."

Max seated next to her and grabbed her free hand.

"You have to stop that." She looked at him. "Stop blaming yourself every time something goes wrong or not in the way you thought it was gonna be. We're both analytical people, but if there is something I've learned is that we can't control everything." He pointed at himself. "I'm brilliant, I know..." And Alex laughed. "But also, there are many things I don't know. Man... If I could have your father's brain."

"We all would be doomed."

"I'm trying to be nice and all I get is a mean response." Max said as if offended. Alex laughed again. "But seriously, we could work together... let's pretend we date and your dad likes me and works here..."

"If that's your way of flirting, then you suck." She raised one eyebrow. "But... Thank you, for everything… I mean it."

"This is the first time I see this soft side of you."

"Jerk."

"Yup, back to normal now."

...

"Here, it's mango juice."

"Thank you."

Those presences, those voices, that smell; it was familiar. _"Those are Alex and Kara... I survived."_

He tried to move but couldn't; tried to speak but his body was gaining control over itself. His eyelids wouldn't move either.

"You should be on the solar bed."

"I love the sun, but I have limits and I'm tired of being there. I can walk better now, and I just had some vegetables... Not my choice, but finally some food!"

"Shhh... Kara..."

"Sorry."

That spirit, that interaction; he wanted to see them.

"Did you have some sleep?"

"Yeah, about two hours or so."

"Alex..." Kara complained. "You have to rest."

"I'm fine."

"Ok, enough." J'onn heard Kara moving. "Go to sleep, Alex."

"Excuse me?"

"You. Sleep. Now."

"I'm the older one, I don't take orders from you."

"If J'onn was awake, he would order you to..."

"Go to sleep." The Martian finished the sentence.

"J'onn?" His eyes were sill closed, but he felt the sisters get closer to his bed.

Someone grabbed his hand and he weakly squeezed it.

"My God..." It was Alex.

When his eyelids allowed him to open his eyes, the first sight were two girls, each on one side of his bed.

"Hey." A teardrop fell on his face. It was Alex's, who was starring at him with a kind smile.

"I thought I was going home." He said in a whisper. "But, y-you're not green... I'm still on Earth."

The sisters laughed.

"Yes, you are." Kara smiled at him too. "This is your your second home, just as it is for me."

"Welcome back, Sir." Said Alex while wiping tears from her eyes.

"Just... J'onn."

"Welcome home, J'onn. Welcome home."

Kara grabbed J'onn's free hand and took Alex's too. "We're all home."

...

(Check the EPILOGUE )


	17. EPILOGUE

To everyone everywhere, greetings from México. ¡MUCHAS GRACIAS! (And now we can keep waiting until October lol)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All of them belong to CW's Supergirl TV Show.

...

EPILOGUE

...

"Midvale?" Asked Kara.

"Yes, dad wants us all to go there and spend a couple of weeks as vacation. You know, just like old times. He even invited Hank."

She seated on Kara's couch, putting the blanket on their legs.

"He healed pretty fast. Three weeks? I'm not sure if he…" Kara had her doubts.

"He's not fully recovered yet, but he's already back in action, asking about plans to re-build the DEO again. He doesn't like to be at Lord Industries."

"I totally agree with him on that. Who would like to be close to Maxwell Lord?"

Alex stayed silent, somehow feeling awkward for a moment. She didn't know what to say to change the subject immediately… Someone knocked at the door.

"Yes!" Kara was opening in it in less than a second and Alex relaxed.

Pizza, drinks, ice cream in the freezer, and now…

"Potstickers arrived!" Kara approached the living room jumping in excitement.

The blonde girl was already licking her own lips with anxiety, tasting the food in advance; Alex looked at her for a moment, simply admiring the person who was always her unconditional companion.

"Hey." She stretched her arm to pull Kara to the couch.

"What's going on? The food will get cold…"

"Just come here." She wrapped Kara with both arms.

"Is everything ok?" Asked Kara while returning the hug. "Alex?"

"Yes, everything is ok now… Let me just… enjoy your presence for a minute."

Kara smirked but stayed there, tightening the hug. She leaned her head against Alex's.

"For a moment… I thought I was not gonna have the chance to have a Danvers sisters' night again." Confessed Kara; breathing in Alex's shampoo scent coming from her hair.

"Me too."

Both stayed like that a bit longer.

"Here we are."

"Here we are." Alex pulled back smiling at her, then kissed her sister's cheek. "Man, how many episodes of Game of Thrones have we missed?"

"This is going to be a loooong night. But Homeland goes first."

"Good, we have enough food."

"I don't really think it will last that long." Said Kara with amusement.

Alex gave her another quick hug.

"Auch…"

"Sorry." Apologized Alex.

"We still gotta work for you to control strenght properly, and find out if you got more powers; but so far, with that strength you have, we should make you a cape."

"Yes!" Replied Alex. "But make it black, no primary colors… I mean, who would have the horrible taste to wear primary colors." She said to annoy her little sister.

"Mmm… don't know, maybe someone who took fashion advices from her older sister."

Alex was speechless.

"Touché!" She was impressed. "My little sister is finally learning something from me. I feel so proud right now, she's indeed intelligent and…" A cushion hit her face.

"Oh you'll pay for that…" She grabbed another cushion to hit back.

"Oh!" Kara lifted her hand to stop Alex. "Wait, wait, wait, it's starting."

"Alright." Alex turned to face the TV too. "Wait for the commercial break, Kara. Wait for it…"

…

COMPLETED.


End file.
